Obtaining quality extended field-of-view ultrasound images of skeletal muscle to measure muscle fascicle length

Amy N. Adkins, Wendy M. Murray*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Muscle fascicle length, which is commonly measured in vivo using traditional ultrasound, is an important parameter defining a muscle’s force generating capacity. However, over 90% of all upper limb muscles and 85% of all lower limb muscles have optimal fascicle lengths longer than the field-of-view of common traditional ultrasound (T-US) probes. A newer, less frequently adopted method called extended field-of-view ultrasound (EFOV-US) can enable direct measurement of fascicles longer than the field-of-view of a single T-US image. This method, which automatically fits together a sequence of T-US images from a dynamic scan, has been demonstrated to be valid and reliable for obtaining muscle fascicle lengths in vivo. Despite the numerous skeletal muscles with long fascicles and the validity of the EFOV-US method for making measurements of such fascicles, few published studies have utilized this method. In this study, we demonstrate both how to implement the EFOV-US method to obtain high quality musculoskeletal images and how to quantify fascicle lengths from those images. We expect that this demonstration will encourage the use of the EFOV-US method to increase the pool of muscles, both in healthy and impaired populations, for which we have in vivo muscle fascicle length data.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere61765
Pages (from-to)1-16
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Visualized Experiments
Volume2020
Issue number166
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2020

Funding

We would like to thank Vikram Darbhe and Patrick Franks for their experimental guidance. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE-1324585 as well as NIH R01D084009 and F31AR076920. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or NIH.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemical Engineering
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Immunology and Microbiology
  • General Neuroscience

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Obtaining quality extended field-of-view ultrasound images of skeletal muscle to measure muscle fascicle length'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this