Establishment of reference values of tongue muscle thickness with ultrasonography measurement and evaluation of tongue fasciculation through the submental way in Chinese healthy adults and its clinical application / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To establish a method which could measure tongue muscle thickness and evaluate the fasciculation of the tongue muscle by submental way ultrasonic detection , and to obtain the reference values of tongue muscle thickness in healthy volunteers , exploring its clinical application in the patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).Methods In two-hundred healthy volunteers who took physical examination at the Medical Examination Center of Peking University Third Hospital , the tongue thickness was determined by measuring the distance between the upper and lower surfaces of the lingual muscles in the center of the plane perpendicular to the Frankfurt horizontal plane of the frontal section with a 3.5 MHz convex array transducer .The fasciculation of tongue muscle was evaluated using a 7.5 MHz linear array transducer in the same position .This method was used to measure the thickness of tongue muscle and to evaluate tongue muscle fasciculation in 30 patients with ALS who visited neurological clinic with the diagnosis of possible or definite ALS according to revised El Escorial criteria during the same period .We compared the tongue muscle thickness between 30 ALS patients and the same number of age-and gender-matched healthy volunteers .Results The mean value of tongue muscle thickness of males was significantly higher than that of females ((4.09 ±0.52) cm vs (3.70 ±0.56) cm, t=5.108, P<0.01), but there was no significant difference in the tongue muscle thickness between the different age groups .The mean value of tongue muscle thickness was significantly correlated with the body mass index value in healthy subjects ( r=0.412, P<0.01).No tongue muscle fibrillation was detected in healthy volunteers .In ALS group, the tongue was significantly thinner than that in healthy subjects ((3.77 ±0.58) cm vs (4.05 ±0.49) cm, t=-0.253, P<0.05).Of the total 30 ALS patients, we recognized tongue muscle fasciculation in 12 (40%).Conclusion The method to measure tongue muscle thickness and evaluate tongue musclefibrillation is reliable , and has good clinical application value in related diseases such as ALS .