Protocol and reference values for minimal detectable change of MyotonPRO and ultrasound imaging measurements of muscle and subcutaneous tissue

Abstract

The assessment of muscle health is of paramount importance, as the loss of muscle mass and strength can affect performance. Two non-invasive tools that have been found to be useful in this are the MyotonPRO and rehabilitative ultrasound imaging, both have shown to be reliable in previous studies many of which conducted by the research team. This study aims to determine the reliability of previously unassessed local body structures and to determine their minimal detectable changes (MDC) to support both researchers and clinicians. Twenty healthy participants were recruited to determine the reliability of seven skin positions out of a previously established protocol. Reliability was determined between three independent raters, and day to day reliability was assessed with one rater a week apart. Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC) between raters and between days for tissue stiffness, tone and elasticity range from moderate to excellent (ICC 0.52–0.97), with most good or excellent. ICCs for subcutaneous thickness between days was good or excellent (ICC 0.86–0.91) and moderate to excellent between raters (ICC 0.72–0.96), in muscles it was moderate to excellent between raters and days (ICC 0.71–0.95). The protocol in this study is repeatable with overall good reliability, it also provides established MDC values for several measurement points.

Dry immersion induced acute low back pain and its relationship with trunk myofascial viscoelastic changes

“…Amirova and co-workers (2021) employed handheld myotonometry (MyotonPRO) which has been used in parabolic flight ( Schneider et al, 2015 ), HDTBR ( Schoenrock et al, 2018 ), and DI ( Treffel et al, 2016 ; de Abreu et al, 2017 ; Rukavishnikov et al, 2017 ). The MyotonPRO is reported to provide reliable paraspinal ( Hu et al, 2018 ) resting myofascial tissue tone assessment ( Kelly et al, 2018 ; Muckelt et al, 2022 ) via analysis of induced tissue oscillations ( Lo et al, 2017 ). The MyotonPRO also provides indices of dynamic stiffness and creep ( Simons and Mense, 1998 ).…”

The princess and the pea - Comparison of different stiffness assessment tools on a multi-layered phantom tissue model

“…Future research should be dedicated to establishing tissue layer properties for different subgroups, as such data may positively increase the validity of measurement devices and phantom models alike. Future work should furthermore re ne existing measurement protocols 15 for the examined SATs with de ned measurement locations and reference values for different body regions in vivo.…”

“…Changes in the mechanical properties of soft tissues have been linked to musculoskeletal disorders, injuries, pain conditions, and cancer biology, leading to a rising demand in diagnostic methods for research and clinical practice 2,[8][9][10][11][12][13] . However, little data exists to provide evidence-based recommendations for current stiffness assessment tools, requiring further research investigating their measurement properties 14,15 . Prior research has suggested to use material phantoms with known viscoelastic properties to obtain valuable results regarding the reliability and concurrent validity of stiffness assessment tools [16][17][18] .…”

Effects of Both Abdominal Drawing-In Maneuver and Co-Contraction of Hip Adductor Muscle while Bridge Exercise on Abdominal Muscle

“…After the measurement, the muscle tone the normal range was set to 12-18 Hz. When the coefficient of variation was 3% or more, it was measured again [32,34,35].…”