Ultrasound imaging has been previously utilized in the measurement of muscle thickness and cross-sectional area in research studies, and advocated as a clinical biofeedback tool in the rehabilitation of transversus abdominis function following episodes of low back pain. This paper describes how the thickness of the abdominal muscles can be quantified with a new measurement technique using M-mod...

A large inter-individual variation is seen in muscle fascicle length of the athletes but the reasons for this phenomenon are unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine whether genetic factors contribute to the variances in muscle architectural characteristics. Nine monozygous twin pairs (3 males and 6 females), mean age 23 years (range 17-40) were studied. Fascicle length, pennation an...

STUDY DESIGN Clinical measurement, reliability study. OBJECTIVES To investigate the improvements in precision when averaging multiple measurements of percent change in muscle thickness of the transversus abdominis (TrA) and lumbar multifidus (LM) muscles. BACKGROUND Although the reliability of TrA and LM muscle thickness measurements using rehabilitative ultrasound imaging (RUSI) is good, m...

[Purpose] This study examined the changes in the thickness of the deep cervical flexor according to the contraction intensity of the masticatory muscle during deep cervical flexor training. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty healthy adults were randomly selected and the thicknesses of their longus colli and sternocleidomastoid were measured with ultrasound when the masticatory muscle contracted duri...

Purpose: To investigate the effect of single session Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) over the ankle plantar flexor muscles on the spasticity, muscle architecture, and gait in chronic stroke patients. Methods: This quasi-experimental, single group study had a repeated measures design. A total of 17 post-stroke patients were selected by convenience sampling method, and received 2000 sho...

The age-related decrease in human skeletal muscle mass; i.e. sarcopenia, has received much attention, but an age-related increase in the ratio of adipose tissue to muscle tissue has received noticeably less. A few studies have shown that ultrasonographic echo intensity, an index of the adipose-to-muscle ratio, is negatively associated with functional capacity, but the best parameters by which t...

Rehabilitative Ultrasound Imaging (RUSI) has been validated as a noninvasive method to measure activation of selected muscles. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between muscle thickness change, as measured by ultrasonography, and electromyography (EMG) activity of the lumbar multifidus (LM) muscle in normal subjects. Bipolar fine wire electrodes were inserted into the ...

INTRODUCTION The utility of rehabilitative ultrasound imaging (RUSI) for assessing trapezius muscle contractile characteristics was investigated by examining whether muscle thickness changes during contraction (CT) differed between people with and without mild shoulder pain. METHODS In 18 subjects with mild shoulder pain (aged 28±8 years) and 18 matched controls, trapezius muscle thickness ch...

INTRODUCTION We studied ultrasound features of muscle after nerve injury. METHODS We evaluated ultrasound measurements of muscle thickness and backscatter in injured and contralateral uninjured elbow flexors of 51 children with newborn brachial plexus palsy (NBPP) and compared the results to elbow flexor function (Active Movement Scale), defined as normal, moderate, or severe. RESULTS Compa...

The purpose of this study was to measure the change in hamstring muscle thickness between contracting and relaxing conditions following a return to sports after a hamstring muscle strain and thereby evaluate muscle function. Six male track and field sprinters participated in this study. All had experienced a prior hamstring strain injury that required a minimum of 2 weeks away from sport partic...