La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
Holsworth Research Initiative, La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
PLoS One. 2021 Sep 29;16(9):e0258014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258014. eCollection 2021.
Ultrasonography is widely used to measure gastrocnemius muscle architecture; however, it is unclear if values obtained from digitised images are sensitive enough to track architectural responses to clinical interventions. The purpose of this study was to explore the reliability and determine the minimal detectable change (MDC) of gastrocnemius medialis (GM) and gastrocnemius lateralis (GL) muscle architecture using ultrasound in a clinical setting. A trained sonographer obtained three B-mode images from each of the GM and GL muscles in 87 volunteers (44 males, 43 females; 22±9 years of age) on two separate occasions. Three independent investigators received training, then digitised the images to determine intra-rater, inter-rater, and test-retest reliability for fascicle length (FL), pennation angle (θ) and muscle thickness. Median FL, θ, and muscle thickness for GM and GL were 53.6-55.7 mm and 65.8-69.3 mm, 18.7-19.5° and 11.9-12.5°, and 12.8-13.2 mm and 15.9-16.9 mm, respectively. Intra- and inter-rater reliability of manual digitisation was excellent for all parameters. Test-retest reliability was moderate to excellent with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values ≥0.80 for FL, ≥0.61 for θ, and ≥0.81 for muscle thickness, in both GM and GL. The respective MDC for GM and GL FL, θ, and muscle thickness was ≤12.1 mm and ≤18.00 mm, ≤6.4° and ≤4.2°, and ≤3.2 mm and ≤3.1 mm. Although reliable, the relatively large MDC suggest that clinically derived ultrasound measurements of muscle architecture in GM and GL are more likely to be useful to detect differences between populations than to detect changes in muscle architecture following interventions.
超声广泛用于测量比目鱼肌结构；然而，目前尚不清楚从数字化图像中获得的值是否足够灵敏，以跟踪对临床干预的结构响应。本研究旨在探讨在临床环境中使用超声测量比目鱼肌内侧（GM）和比目鱼肌外侧（GL）肌肉结构的可靠性，并确定其最小可检测变化（MDC）。一位经过培训的超声技师在两次不同的时间从 87 名志愿者（44 名男性，43 名女性；22±9 岁）的 GM 和 GL 肌肉中各获得了 3 个 B 模式图像。三位独立的研究人员接受了培训，然后对图像进行数字化，以确定股二头肌长度（FL）、肌腹角度（θ）和肌肉厚度的内部、内部和测试-再测试可靠性。GM 和 GL 的中位数 FL、θ 和肌肉厚度分别为 53.6-55.7mm 和 65.8-69.3mm、18.7-19.5°和 11.9-12.5°，12.8-13.2mm 和 15.9-16.9mm。手动数字化的内部和内部评分者可靠性对于所有参数均为优秀。测试-再测试可靠性在 GM 和 GL 中均为中度至优秀，组内相关系数（ICC）值≥0.80 时 FL、≥0.61 时θ和≥0.81 时肌肉厚度。GM 和 GL 的 FL、θ 和肌肉厚度的相应 MDC 分别为≤12.1mm 和≤18.00mm、≤6.4°和≤4.2°、≤3.2mm 和≤3.1mm。尽管可靠，但相对较大的 MDC 表明，从 GM 和 GL 的临床衍生超声肌肉结构测量更有可能用于检测人群之间的差异，而不是检测干预后肌肉结构的变化。
