B. Hete et Kk. Shung, A STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MECHANICAL AND ULTRASONIC PROPERTIES OF DYSTROPHIC AND NORMAL SKELETAL-MUSCLE, Ultrasound in medicine & biology, 21(3), 1995, pp. 343-352
Citations number
64
Categorie Soggetti
Radiology,Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging",Acoustics
A study has been made of the application of radio frequency (RF) ultra
sound to the detection of muscular dystrophy by monitoring passively s
tretched skeletal muscle. The tests included detection of integrated b
ackscatter changes in response to both static loading, in which muscle
samples were stretched and allowed to relax, and stress relaxation. I
n both static and step strain loading conditions, the dystrophic muscl
e was found to exhibit little change in backscatter power while normal
muscle responded to loading with significant changes in integrated ba
ckscatter. The backscatter response is compared with mechanical proper
ties of the tissue (time constants and stress-strain constants). Both
mechanical and ultrasonic time constants of relaxation are not signifi
cantly different between normal and dystrophic tissue, but stress-stra
in constants do differ. The difference in response of dystrophic and n
ormal tissue appears to be due to a repression of motion of the consti
tuent anatomy of dystrophic muscle which is responsible for the change
of echogenicity with passive stretch.