Department of Human Movement and Health, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920-8640, Japan.
Aging Clin Exp Res. 2010 Feb;22(1):24-30. doi: 10.1007/BF03324811. Epub 2009 Nov 6.
Gastrocnemius and soleus in the triceps surae have functional and histological differences.We therefore investigated age-related changes in muscle thickness of these two muscles, as well as the difference in these changes between men and women.
Participants comprised 847 healthy adults aged 20 to 79 years. A B-mode ultrasound scanner, with participants sitting on a chair, was used to measure muscle thickness from the midpoint of the gastrocnemius medialis muscle at the level of maximum girth (target point). The ratio of muscle thickness to height was calculated. The inter-rater and intra-rater reliability of measuring muscle thickness with the ultrasound scanner and the validity of the target point were demonstrated before the examination.
Gastrocnemius was significantly thinner in women aged 60 or older and in men aged 50 or older, compared with their counterparts in their 20s. For soleus, no significant differences in thickness were found among the age groups in either sex. Decline in muscle thickness from age 40-79 was greater for gastrocnemius than for soleus.
These results confirm that gastrocnemius starts to deteriorate earlier and atrophies at a faster pace than soleus. A significant sex difference was found only in the onset age of gastrocnemius deterioration, which was earlier in men than in women.
比目鱼肌和腓肠肌在小腿三头肌中具有功能和组织学差异。因此，我们研究了这两块肌肉随年龄变化的肌肉厚度变化，以及男女之间这些变化的差异。
参与者包括 847 名年龄在 20 至 79 岁的健康成年人。使用 B 型超声扫描仪，让参与者坐在椅子上，从最大周长（目标点）处的腓肠肌内侧肌的中点测量肌肉厚度。计算肌肉厚度与身高的比值。在检查前，证明了使用超声扫描仪测量肌肉厚度的组内和组间可靠性以及目标点的有效性。
与 20 多岁的同龄人相比，60 岁及以上的女性和 50 岁及以上的男性的腓肠肌明显变薄。对于比目鱼肌，无论男女，各年龄组之间的厚度均无显著差异。从 40 岁到 79 岁，腓肠肌的肌肉厚度下降幅度大于比目鱼肌。
这些结果证实，与比目鱼肌相比，腓肠肌更早开始恶化，并且萎缩速度更快。仅在腓肠肌恶化的起始年龄上发现了显著的性别差异，男性比女性更早。
