Ultrasound Biomicroscopy for In vivo architectural characterization of gastrocnemius muscle from rats

This work applies the Ultrasound Biomicroscopy (UBM) technique to quantify the pennation angle (PA) and muscle thickness (MT) of rats´ gastrocnemius muscle and to determine the reliability of these measurements. UBM (40MHz) images of five Wistar female rats were acquired at two ankle positions (neutral and full extension) and in two different days. A total of 320 images were processed to quantify PA and MT and a statistical analysis assessed data variability and reliability. The coefficients of variation were 9.37 and 3.97% for PA and MT, respectively, for the ankle at full extension and 15.41 and 4.99% for the ankle at neutral position. Pearson correlation between two repeated measurements in the same image were 0.93 and 0.99 for PA and MT, respectively. The results indicate that UBM is suitable for quantitative muscle architectural characterization and can be used in future muscle biomechanical studies.