Academic Journal
Quantitative analysis of ultrasound echo intensity dynamics in pennate skeletal muscle during passive stretching, active, and high-intensity contractions.
| Τίτλος: | Quantitative analysis of ultrasound echo intensity dynamics in pennate skeletal muscle during passive stretching, active, and high-intensity contractions. |
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| Συγγραφείς: | Lin Y; School of Biomedical Engineering, Medical School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China., Ruan M; College of Physical Education and Health, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China., Chen H; School of Biomedical Engineering, Medical School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China., Zhu L; School of Biomedical Engineering, Medical School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China., Zhou Y; School of Biomedical Engineering, Medical School, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Marshall Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China. Electronic address: yjzhou@szu.edu.cn., Zheng Y; Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China. |
| Πηγή: | Ultrasonics [Ultrasonics] 2026 Sep; Vol. 165, pp. 108105. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Apr 23. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Elsevier Science Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 0050452 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1874-9968 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 0041624X NLM ISO Abbreviation: Ultrasonics Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Publication: 1995- : Amsterdam : Elsevier Science Original Publication: London. Butterworth Scientific Ltd. |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Muscle, Skeletal*/diagnostic imaging , Muscle, Skeletal*/physiology , Muscle Contraction*/physiology, Ultrasonography/methods ; Humans ; Algorithms ; Male ; Muscle Stretching Exercises ; Torque |
| Περίληψη: | Objective: Quantitative ultrasound imaging enables real-time assessment of skeletal muscle contraction. However, traditional muscle structural parameters can be compromised by unstable imaging during intense contractions. Methods: We introduce an echo intensity (EI)-based method to quantify contraction activity in pennate skeletal muscle. The approach was evaluated in three representative scenarios using longitudinal ultrasound images: passive stretching (gastrocnemius, n = 20), active plantar flexion (gastrocnemius, n = 8), and treadmill sprinting (biceps femoris long head, n = 5). Results: In passive stretching, inverted normalized EI correlated strongly with algorithm-derived pennation angle (Pearson r = 0.81±0.17, p<0.001). During active plantar flexion, inverted EI signals were temporally aligned with muscle torque via cross-correlation, yielding a high correlation (Pearson r = 0.91±0.06, p<0.001). In comparison, algorithm-derived traditional structural parameters showed moderate correlations with torque, including pennation angle (r = 0.68±0.19), fascicle length (r = -0.69±0.31), and muscle thickness (r = -0.59±0.37). For rapid sprinting, inverted EI exhibited clear periodicity consistent with subjects' stride cycles and correlated with the root mean square (RMS) of the surface electromyography signal after alignment (Pearson r = 0.59±0.16, p<0.001). Notably, EI provides accurate temporal tracking of contraction events observed in conventional reference measures, while amplitude correspondence remains variable. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that EI can serve as a quantitative, real-time ultrasonic biomarker for dynamic muscle contraction, highlighting its potential for further methodological development and imaging-based assessments. (Copyright © 2026 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Echo intensity; Muscle contraction; Pennate muscle; Tissue characterization; Ultrasonography |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260425 Date Completed: 20260612 Latest Revision: 20260612 |
| Update Code: | 20260612 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ultras.2026.108105 |
| PMID: | 42033958 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1874-9968 |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ultras.2026.108105 |