Preliminary Study on Quantitative Evaluation of Hardness of Gastrocnemius and Soleus Using Shear-wave Ultrasound Elastography / 中国医学影像学杂志

ABSTRACT

Purpose To explore the effect of ultrasonic section,patient position and other factors on Young's modulus and shear wave velocity measurement of the muscle,and to study the consistency between Young's modulus and shear wave velocity on reflection of muscle hardness.Materials and Methods Shear wave elastography was used to detect 10 healthy young men and 10 women.Longitudinal and transverse detection of the Young's modulus and shear wave velocity of gastrocnemius and soleus were performed in natural ankle joint position,maximum plantar flexion and maximum dorsiflexion position.Results ① Comparison of the elasticity measurement between gastrocnemius and soleus.There were significant differences in the Young's modulus in the maximum plantar flexion and Young's modulus and shear wave velocity in maximum dorsiflexion position in longitudinal detection (P＜0.05) that gastrocnemius measurements were higher than soleus measurements.There were significant differences in Young's modulus and the shear wave velocity (P＜0.05) in natural position and maximum dorsiflexion position that soleus measurements were higher than gastrocnemius measurements.② In the positions of the ankle joints,the differences between longitudinal detection values and transverse detection values of gastrocnemius or soleus were statistically significant (P＜0.01) and longitudinal detection values were higher than transverse detection values.③ Comparison of the elasticity measurement of gastrocnemius and soleus muscle among different positions of the ankle joints.The measurement in natural position and in the maximum plantar flexion were evidently higher than that in the maximum dorsiflexion position (P＜0.01) in longitudinal detection.The maximum dorsiflexion position showed higher elasticity measurement.Only elasticity measurement in natural position and the maximum plantar flexion of the soleus was statistically different from that in the maximum dorsiflexion position (P＜0.01) that it was higher in the maximum dorsiflexion position.Conclusion The ultrasound elasticity measurements of gastrocnemius and soleus are related with the ultrasonic longitudinal or transverse section and the relative ankle positions.Moreover,there are some differences in elasticity measurements between these two muscles.should be given to all of these in quantitative evaluation of muscle hardness using shear wave ultrasound elastography.