Department of Ultrasound, Changzheng Hospital, Naval Medical University, Shanghai, China.
Department of Information Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai, China.
Int J Exp Pathol. 2022 Oct;103(5):208-218. doi: 10.1111/iep.12447. Epub 2022 Jun 25.
The aim of this study was to investigate the potential application of computer-aided analysis in the quantitative assessment of changes in skeletal muscle injury in the rabbit contusion model. Forty healthy rabbits were randomly divided into control (n = 5) and contusion (n = 35) groups. Rabbits in the contusion group were used to construct a muscle contusion model induced by a hammer hitting the right gastrocnemius, while the muscles of rabbits in the control group were non-injured. Two-dimensional ultrasound (2D US) and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) were performed on the rabbits that had received skeletal muscle contusion injury at 1 h, and 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after injury. Afterwards, a multiscale blob feature (MBF) method was used to extract the textural features from the 2D US, and the muscle injuries were quantitatively evaluated. The eight textural parameters of skeletal muscle analysed by MBF at 1 h, and 1, 3 and 7 days post-injury were found to be significantly higher in the contusion group than in the control group (p < .05). On Day 14, the textural parameters (e.g., greyscale mean [Mean], greyscale standard deviation [SDev], number of blobs, average size of blobs, homogeneity of distribution, periodicity of distribution [POD] and irregularity) were also evidently higher in the contusion group than in the control group (p < .05). On Day 28, Mean, SDev and POD in the contusion group were markedly higher (p < .05). After that, the microcirculation in the injured areas increased from Day 7 to Day 21 after injury, but decreased on Day 28 after injury. Thus the quantitative assessment of changes in skeletal muscle injury (SMI) using computer-aided analysis allowed us to describe the geometric features of injured muscle fibres and the microperfusion changes estimated by the modified semi-quantitative scoring system. This provides a scientific basis for the development of a novel approach for the evaluation of SMI and rehabilitation process.
本研究旨在探讨计算机辅助分析在定量评估兔挫伤模型中骨骼肌损伤变化中的潜在应用。将 40 只健康家兔随机分为对照组（n=5）和挫伤组（n=35）。挫伤组家兔采用锤子击打右侧比目鱼肌构建肌肉挫伤模型，对照组家兔肌肉未受伤。在受伤后 1 h、1、3、7、14、21 和 28 d 对接受骨骼肌挫伤损伤的家兔进行二维超声（2D US）和超声造影（CEUS）检查。然后，使用多尺度斑点特征（MBF）方法从 2D US 中提取纹理特征，并对肌肉损伤进行定量评估。在受伤后 1 h 和 1、3 和 7 d，MBF 分析的 8 个骨骼肌纹理参数在挫伤组中明显高于对照组（p < 0.05）。在第 14 天，挫伤组的纹理参数（例如灰度均值[Mean]、灰度标准差[SDev]、斑点数量、斑点平均大小、分布均匀性、分布周期性[POD]和不规则性）也明显高于对照组（p < 0.05）。在第 28 天，挫伤组的 Mean、SDev 和 POD 明显升高（p < 0.05）。此后，受伤部位的微循环从受伤后第 7 天增加到第 21 天，但在受伤后第 28 天减少。因此，使用计算机辅助分析定量评估骨骼肌损伤变化（SMI）可以描述损伤肌纤维的几何特征和改良半定量评分系统估计的微灌注变化。这为评估 SMI 和康复过程的新方法的发展提供了科学依据。
