Assessment of individual muscle hardness and stiffness using ultrasound elastography

Inami, Takayuki; Kawakami, Yasuo

doi:10.7600/jpfsm.5.313

Cited by 25 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…When the strain ratio is 1, the muscle hardness is identical to the reference; as stated in previous studies [5, 6], smaller strain ratios indicate harder muscle. The average value for the 10 images was used as the representative strain ratio.…”

Section: Case Presentationsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…Recently, ultrasonic elastography has used for the measurement of individual muscle mechanical properties (e.g., muscle hardness) [5]. Muscle hardness measured using ultrasound strain elastography (USE) has been reported to be linearly related to muscle contraction intensity up to a moderate level of contraction, and USE is attracting attention as a method for estimating individual muscle strength (based on individual muscle hardness) [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changes in the Linear Relationship between Muscle Contraction Intensity and Muscle Hardness after Rectus Femoris Muscle Strain

Inami

Shimizu

Osuga³

et al. 2019

Case Reports in Orthopedics

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Objective Joint torque differences between healthy and rehabilitated legs are often measured as a clinical index of recovery from muscle strain injury. Unfortunately, it should be noted that this is a questionable evaluation measure of the muscle after injury because it is a composite value including related cooperating muscles. Meanwhile, the use of ultrasound elastography for the measurement of individual muscle mechanical properties (i.e., muscle hardness) has recently expanded. The purpose of this study was to examine, using ultrasound elastography, the differences in the linear relationship between muscle contraction intensity and muscle hardness during knee extension in athletes who had recovered from grade II rectus femoris muscle strain injury through comparison of the healthy and rehabilitated legs. Methods Six athletes participated. Rectus femoris muscle hardness, determined during isometric contraction at 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% of maximum voluntary contraction, was evaluated using ultrasound strain elastography. Results and Conclusion The results indicated that for the healthy legs, the strain ratios, as indicated by muscle hardness, decreased linearly (became harder) with contraction intensity, but the strain ratios for the rehabilitated legs decreased nonlinearly. These results show the danger of judging the recovery period using only the difference between healthy and rehabilitated muscle strengths and the importance of evaluating individual muscles.

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Section: Case Presentationsupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in the Linear Relationship between Muscle Contraction Intensity and Muscle Hardness after Rectus Femoris Muscle Strain

Inami

Shimizu

Osuga³

et al. 2019

Case Reports in Orthopedics

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“…Comparing with conventional strain elastography, SWE is technically less operator-dependent as it largely relies on controlled ultrasound push beams rather than manually on tissue compression by sonographers for tissue deformation (Inami & Kawakami, 2016). It has also been proven to possess high intra-operator (ranging from 0.751 to 0.941) and moderate inter-operator reliability (0.585 and 0.749) in assessing the AT stiffness in both Chinese athletes and non-athletes, respectively (Chiu et al, 2016; Siu et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sonographic evaluation of the immediate effects of eccentric heel drop exercise on Achilles tendon and gastrocnemius muscle stiffness using shear wave elastography

Leung

Chu

Lai

2017

PeerJ

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BackgroundMechanical loading is crucial for muscle and tendon tissue remodeling. Eccentric heel drop exercise has been proven to be effective in the management of Achilles tendinopathy, yet its induced change in the mechanical property (i.e., stiffness) of the Achilles tendon (AT), medial and lateral gastrocnemius muscles (MG and LG) was unknown. Given that shear wave elastography has emerged as a powerful tool in assessing soft tissue stiffness with promising intra- and inter-operator reliability, the objective of this study was hence to characterize the stiffness of the AT, MG and LG in response to an acute bout of eccentric heel drop exercise.MethodsForty-five healthy young adults (36 males and nine females) performed 10 sets of 15-repetition heel drop exercise on their dominant leg with fully-extended knee, during which the AT and gastrocnemius muscles, but not soleus, were highly stretched. Before and immediately after the heel drop exercise, elastic moduli of the AT, MG and LG were measured by shear wave elastography.ResultsAfter the heel drop exercise, the stiffness of AT increased significantly by 41.8 + 33.5% (P < 0.001), whereas the increases in the MG and LG stiffness were found to be more drastic by 75 + 47.7% (P < 0.001) and 71.7 + 51.8% (P < 0.001), respectively. Regarding the AT, MG and LG stiffness measurements, the inter-operator reliability was 0.940, 0.987 and 0.986, and the intra-operator reliability was 0.916 to 0.978, 0.801 to 0.961 and 0.889 to 0.985, respectively.DiscussionThe gastrocnemius muscles were shown to bear larger mechanical loads than the AT during an acute bout of eccentric heel drop exercise. The findings from this pilot study shed some light on how and to what extent the AT and gastrocnemius muscles mechanically responds to an isolated set of heel drop exercise. Taken together, appropriate eccentric load might potentially benefit mechanical adaptations of the AT and gastrocnemius muscles in the rehabilitation of patients with Achilles tendinopathy.

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“…The biceps brachii muscle hardness values obtained in the present study by PM (15.0–40.4 kPa) were in line with those in which PM was used to assess biceps brachii muscle hardness reported by Murayama et al 19 : 23.1 ± 6.5 kPa, and Komiya et al 6 : 30.4 ± 8.2 kPa. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has reported YM of biceps brachii assessed by USE, but some studies used ultrasound shear wave elastography (USWE) that can evaluate YM based on the shear wave velocity (V): YM = 3pV 2 ( p = density: 1 g/cm 2 ) 27 . YM values of biceps brachii by USWE varied among the studies, but Akagi et al 28 reported 19.4 ± 6.8 kPa, and Nordez and Hug 29 reported 33.9 ± 11.4 kPa, which were in the range obtained in the present study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biceps brachii muscle hardness assessed by a push-in meter in comparison to ultrasound strain elastography

Murayama

Nosaka

Inami

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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This study investigated the relationship between push-in meter (PM) and ultrasound strain elastography (USE) for biceps brachii (BB) muscle hardness. BB hardness of 21 young men was assessed by PM and USE during rest and isometric contractions of six different intensities (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90% of maximal voluntary contraction: MVC) at 30°, 60° and 90° elbow flexion. Muscle hardness (E) was calculated from the force–displacement relationship in PM, and strain ratio (SR) between an acoustic coupler (elastic modulus: 22.6 kPa) and different regions of interest (ROIs) in BB was calculated and converted to Young’s modulus (YM) in USE. In resting muscle, E was 26.1 ± 6.4 kPa, and SR and YM for the whole BB was 0.88 ± 0.4 and 30.8 ± 12.8 kPa, respectively. A significant (p < 0.01) correlation was evident between E and logarithmical transformed SR (LTSR) for the ROI of whole BB (r = − 0.626), and E and converted YM (r = 0.615). E increased approximately ninefold from resting to 90% MVC, and E and LTSR (r = − 0.732 to − 0.880), and E and converted YM for the SR above 0.1 were correlated (r = 0.599–0.768, p < 0.01). These results suggest that muscle hardness values obtained by PM and USE are comparable.

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Assessment of individual muscle hardness and stiffness using ultrasound elastography

Cited by 25 publications

References 42 publications

Changes in the Linear Relationship between Muscle Contraction Intensity and Muscle Hardness after Rectus Femoris Muscle Strain

Changes in the Linear Relationship between Muscle Contraction Intensity and Muscle Hardness after Rectus Femoris Muscle Strain

Sonographic evaluation of the immediate effects of eccentric heel drop exercise on Achilles tendon and gastrocnemius muscle stiffness using shear wave elastography

Biceps brachii muscle hardness assessed by a push-in meter in comparison to ultrasound strain elastography

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