Echo intensity obtained from ultrasonography images reflecting muscle strength in elderly men

Abstract

BackgroundIt is well known that loss of muscle mass (quantitative change) is a major change that occurs with aging. Qualitative changes in skeletal muscle, such as increased intramuscular fat, also occur as one ages. Enhanced echo intensity (EI) on ultrasonography images of skeletal muscle is believed to reflect muscle quality. Recent studies evaluating the quality of skeletal muscle using computer-aided gray scale analysis showed that EI is associated with muscle strength independently of age or muscle size in middle-aged and elderly women. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether muscle quality based on EI is associated with muscle strength independently of muscle size for elderly men.MethodsA total of 184 elderly men (65–91 years) living independently in Kyoto, Japan, participated in this study. The EI, muscle thickness (MT), and subcutaneous fat thickness (FT) of the anterior compartment of the right thigh were determined by assessing ultrasonography images. The maximum isometric torque of knee extension at a knee angle of 90° was measured.ResultsThe EI showed a significant negative correlation with muscle strength (r = −0.333, P < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis revealed that the MT and EI of the knee extensor muscle were independently associated with maximum isometric knee extension strength. Even when partial correlation analysis was performed with age, height, weight, and FT as control variables, EI was still significantly correlated with muscle strength.ConclusionThe results of this study indicate that aging-related changes in muscle quality contribute to diminishing muscle strength. Ultrasonography is a low-cost, easily accessible, and safe method suitable for the assessment of EI as an index of muscle quality.

Thigh and calf circumference for the sarcopenia screening in community-dwelling elderly women

“…It has been reported that the fat mass of the thigh muscle in sarcopenia is increased compared to non sarcopenia. 12,13,14 Indeed, body fat percentage/weight was also significantly higher in the sarcopenia group in this study.…”

Developing and Validating an Age-Independent Equation of Multi-Frequency Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis for Estimation of Appendicular Skeletal Muscle Mass and Establishing Sarcopenia Cutoff

“…Theoretically, ALM of DXA reflects whole lean tissues and not perfectly equal to SMM. In addition, muscle quality and muscle composition change with aging [50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57], but the current study does not examine these effect. As another limitation, Prado et al [58] stated that single cutoff may not suitable for all age, and they used large dataset of DXA ALM with 13,236 subjects from 1999-2004 NHANES cohort and LMS curve-fitting procedure to establish age and gender specific cutoffs.…”

Skeletal muscle mass and quality: evolution of modern measurement concepts in the context of sarcopenia

“…As a representative example, Watanabe et al (50) recently observed an inverse association between echo intensity and muscle strength in elderly men.…”

“…As subjects age and develop sarcopenia skeletal muscles increasingly have adipose tissue infiltration and fibrosis that lead to new sound reflection planes (49) . These changes are accompanied by an increase in echogenicity, indicated as whiter muscles in ultrasonography, and the amount of 'white' and 'dark' muscle tissue of the sonographic images can be quantified by the degree of the echolucencies in human subjects (40,50) . These effects are readily 31 P MRS provides information on high-energy intermediates and related metabolic processes.…”