Three‐dimensional quantitative muscle ultrasound in a healthy population

Abstract

Introduction/Aims Quantitative muscle ultrasound offers biomarkers that aid in the diagnosis, detection, and follow‐up of neuromuscular disorders. At present, quantitative muscle ultrasound methods are 2D and are often operator and device dependent. The aim of this study was to combine an existing device independent method with an automated ultrasound machine and perform 3D quantitative muscle ultrasound, providing new normative data of healthy controls. Methods In total, 123 healthy volunteers were included. After physical examination, 3D ultrasound scans of the tibialis anterior muscle were acquired using an automated ultrasound scanner. Image postprocessing was performed to obtain calibrated echo intensity values based on a phantom reference. Results Tibialis anterior muscle volumes of 61.2 ± 24.1 mL and 53.7 ± 22.7 mL were scanned in males and females, respectively. Echo intensity correlated with gender**, age**, fat fraction*, histogram kurtosis**, skewness* and standard deviation** (*P < .05, **P < .01). Outcome measures did not differ significantly for different acquisition presets. The 3D quantitative muscle ultrasound revealed the non‐uniformity of echo intensity values over the length of the tibialis anterior muscle. Discussion Our method extended 2D measurements and confirmed previous findings. Our method and reported normative data of (potential) biomarkers can be used to study neuromuscular disorders.

Three‐dimensional quantitative muscle ultrasound in patients with facioscapulohumeral dystrophy and myotonic dystrophy

“…This difference is consistent with findings in healthy individuals. 5 Handgrip strength was lower in DM1 patients than in FSHD patients. This coincides with our expectations due to the known early involvement handgrip strength for DM1.…”

“…The US volumes were processed according to our previously published method. 5 The postprocessing steps were automated except for the segmentation of muscle tissue. Segmentation was performed manually by the researcher and was performed such that the maximum amount of muscle tissue was included while excluding the fascia.…”

Quantitative evaluation of fast free-hand volumetric ultrasound

“…Fast FVUS might be suitable for quantitative muscle US (QMUS) which has been demonstrated to be a promising diagnostic and follow-up tool. In QMUS, the main measured parameter is echo intensity (EI) which depends on the image quality [1][2][3]. Acquisition with the fast FVUS can guarantee the image quality values are not impacted by the insufficient acquired data and might lead to more accurate and robust quantitative analysis.…”

“…In the past years, a variety of new applications have been developed for fast and on site stageing of disease. Quantitative US is one of them and has shown to be a promising tool for diagnosis and follow up in muscle diseases [1][2][3].…”

A circulating biomarker of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy clinical severity, valid in skeletal muscle and blood

“…The Lamperti score 29 comprises a 0-15 severity scale evaluating degree of muscle weakness in 5 muscle regions separately. MVC of tibialis anterior was calculated as described by de Jong et al 49 . Finally, FSHD genetic characteristics (FSHD type and D4Z4 repeat length) and disease duration were obtained.…”