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Wenshuang Zhang¹, Ling Wang¹, Dong Yan¹, Yanglei Wu², Yi Yuan¹, and Xiaoguang Cheng^1
1Department of Radiology, Peking University Fourth School of Clinical Medicine, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, Beijing, China, ²MR collaborations, Siemens Healthineers Ltd., Beijing, China

Keywords: Muscle, Fat

This study evaluated the correlation and consistency of proton density fat fraction (PDFF) measured by Q-Dixon magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and high-speed T2-corrected multiecho (HISTO) magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for quantifying thigh muscle fat content in patients undergoing dialysis. Q-Dixon MRI exhibited good correlation and consistency with the HISTO MRS for thigh muscle fat quantitative measurements indicating that Q-Dixon MRI may be a reliable alternative to HISTO MRS in clinical assessment and radiological quantitative evaluation of thigh muscle fat infiltration.

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Glenn Walter¹, Alison Barnard², Sean Forbes², Rebecca Willcocks², Eric Baetscer³, William Triplett², William Rooney ³, and Krista Vandenborne^2
1Physiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States, ²Physical Therapy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States, ³Advanced Imaging Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States

Keywords: Muscle, Muscle, muscular dystrophy

Both MRI and MRS measures reveal that  water T2 can be elevated in individuals living with dystrophin deficits, which includes patients with DMD, BMD and manifesting carriers.  This has important implications when evaluating therapeutics aimed at decreasing inflammation (e.g., corticosteroids or NFkb inhibitors) or disease modifying interventions, such as gene therapies.

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Yael Vainberg¹, Jessica Asay¹, Andrew Schmidt¹, Julie Muccini¹, Garry Gold¹, Feliks Kogan¹, and Valentina Mazzoli^1
1Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States

Keywords: Muscle, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Sarcopenia

The loss of muscle strength was previously thought to be primarily impacted by the loss of muscle volume due to sarcopenia during aging, however, this did not explain why strength declined more rapidly than muscle volume. To better understand this, our study aimed to explore Diffusion Tensor Imaging parameters and their correlations to muscle strength in addition to volume. As expected, volume had a strong positive correlation with all functional strength tests. However, we also observed that radial diffusivity had a significant negative correlation with eccentric functional strength tests, but no correlation was found with the concentric tests. 

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Maria Holodov¹, Shimon Shahar², Tamar Blumenfeld-Katzir¹, David Bendahan³, and Noam Ben-Eliezer^1,4,5
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, ²Center of AI and Data Science (TAD), Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, ³CNRS, CRMBM, Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France, ⁴Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, ⁵Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R), New-York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, United States

Keywords: Muscle, Muscle, Muscular disorder; Neuropathy; Fat water separation

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) is the most prevalent inherited neurological disease, commonly presenting in the first or second decade of life. Notwithstanding the ongoing advancement of non-invasive imaging, effective and sensitive tools for monitoring CMT and other neuromuscular conditions are lacking. Here we investigated the utility of the extended echo-modulation-curve (EMC) algorithm, for precise mapping of T₂ relaxation times and fat fraction (FF) in CMT patients. Results indicate that quantitative T₂ and FF biomarkers correlate with clinical scores. These can be useful for precise and objective monitoring of microstructural processes occurring in CMT.

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Ethan Mathew¹, Natenael Semmineh², Alberto Fuentes¹, Deborah Healey², Richard Dortch¹, Bruce Damon³, and Chad Quarles^2
1Barrow Neuroimaging Innovation Center, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, United States, ²Cancer Systems Imaging, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States, ³University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States

Keywords: Muscle, Diffusion Tensor Imaging

This study examined changes in diffusion tensor parameters during amyotrophic lateral sclerosis progression using a transgenic rodent model. DTI was performed at four timepoints with an even amount of male and female rats to probe sex differences. Leg muscles were excised following scanning for histological analysis. Sex had a statistically significant effect on all parameters. Mean, radial, and axial diffusivity as well as the second eigenvalue were the most sensitive markers of disease progression.

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Alejandro Amador^1,2 and Michael D. Noseworthy^1,2,3,4
1School of Biomedical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, ²Imaging Research Centre, St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, ON, Canada, ³Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, ⁴Department of Radiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Keywords: Muscle, Spectroscopy

1H-MRS of skeletal muscle presents challenges due to the highly structured arrangement of muscle fibres and their orientation to B₀, complicating metabolite visibility and quantification. This study aimed to assess the repeatability of 1H-MRS in the anterior tibialis muscle in healthy volunteers by acquiring multiple spectra during and within different scanning sessions. A robust method for positioning of the voxel-of-interest was used to ensure reproducible acquisition. Data analysis was done using LCModel. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference in metabolite ratios against water across sessions, suggesting good repeatability of 1H-MRS of skeletal muscle.

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Yinqi Liu¹, Weiyin Vivian Liu², and Kun Zhang^1,3
1Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China, ²MR Research, GE Healthcare, Beijing, China, ³College of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China

Keywords: Muscle, Diffusion/other diffusion imaging techniques

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been reported to be associated with lumbar paraspinal muscles injury. Lumbar paraspinal muscles injury may result from oxidative stress and inflammation. In our study, D* at the middle of L4 and L5 levels of the paraspinal muscles was significantly higher in LBP group than in HCs. The fluid oozing from the inflammation can lead to greater unrestricted molecular movement. Therefore, non-invasive and contrast-agent-free IVIM could be a good perfusion predictor of lumbar paraspinal muscle injury. 

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Yanbin Li^1,2, Chang Ni², Jialin Wang¹, Zhenfeng Lv^3,4, Xin Mu², Mingyan Wu¹, Haikun Qi^3,4, and Jeff L. Zhang^2
1Central Research Institute, Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co., Ltd, Shanghai, China, ²Vascular and Physiologic Imaging Research (VPIR) Lab, School of Biomedical Engineering, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China, ³School of Biomedical Engineering, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China, ⁴Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center, Shanghai, China

Keywords: Muscle, Quantitative Imaging

Exercise could induce changes in skeletal muscle’s macromolecular content. In this study, we used an exercise-then-imaging protocol to verify and characterize such phenomenon for calf muscles of healthy subject. A T1ρ mapping technique was used for imaging calf muscles before and after planter flexion of different loads. It was found that post-exercise increases in T1ρ values of gastrocnemius and peroneus longus at exercise load of 16 and of 20 lbs were significantly higher than that of 8 lbs. In conclusion, T1ρ is sensitive to changes of macromolecular content in calf muscles induced by plantar flexion of moderate or high intensity.

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Marta B. Maggioni¹, Renat Sibgatulin¹, Martin Krämer^1,2, Daniel Güllmar¹, and Jürgen R. Reichenbach^1,2,3,4,5
1Medical Physics Group, Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany, ²Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Jena University Hospital - Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, ³Michael Stifel Center for Data-driven and Simulation Science, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, ⁴Abbe School of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany, ⁵Center of Medical Optics and Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

Keywords: Muscle, Quantitative Imaging

It is well established in literature that MRI quantitative parameters such as T₂ or diffusion coefficients change significantly immediately after a strenuous exercise session. In this work, we instead focus on the long-term effects of regular repeated physical activity on three cohorts characterized by different training regimes. A multiparametric protocol was developed to assess T₁, T₂, fat fraction, and IVIM diffusion values to examine differences in lumbar spine muscle physiology between the different cohorts.

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Dushyant Kumar¹, Ryan Armbruster¹, Blake Benyard¹, Ravi Prakash Reddy Nanga¹, Neil Wilson¹, and Ravinder Reddy^1
1Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Keywords: Muscle, CEST & MT, creatine kinase; OXPHOS; Oxidative Phosphorylation

Creatine recovery time constant (τCr) of exercised muscle is strongly coupled to net mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. However, local in vivo pH drop plays the role of a potential confounder, leading to significantly slower creatine recovery. Even under the same prescribed exercised regime, the extent of acidification and hence its impact on τCr would be variable across participant. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study where downfield 1H-MR spectroscopy and 3D creatine chemical exchange saturation transfer are extensively used to prescribe mild exercise regime in terms of maximal voluntary contraction of participants while avoiding any acidification.

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Qizhi Yang¹, Jiechao Wang¹, Hongjian He², Jianhui Zhong^2,3, Congbo Cai¹, Zhong Chen¹, and Shuhui Cai^1
1Xiamen University, Xiamen, China, ²Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ³University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, United States

Keywords: Muscle, Muscle, multiple overlapping-echo detachment imaging

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI), a noninvasive imaging tool without ionizing radiation, provides quantitative physiological information, whilst its lengthy scan time hinders its application in dynamic or real-time scenarios. Herein, the MOLED, a single-shot qMRI method we proposed previously, was applied in an ischemia and post-occlusive reactive hyperemia experiment to measure the T₂ variation of the musculoskeletal system. The results disclose regular T₂ fluctuations of different muscles during different periods. Inter-day repeatability experiments demonstrate that our method is accuracy and reliable.

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Grant M Shoults¹, Evan Gold¹, Feliks Kogan¹, and Valentina Mazzoli^1
1Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States

Keywords: Muscle, Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Knowledge surrounding post-injury supraspinati in swimmers is vast, however a deep, preventative understanding at the cellular and fiber level is lacking. Through DTI, sixteen elite college swimmers were analyzed to evaluate mechanically stress induced differences between sprint and distance freestylers. Significant results (p-value<0.05) were found between groups for λ₁, λ₂, λ₃, RD, MD, and volume. Findings indicated sprinters having a significantly larger MD and RD which was not compatible with the heightened levels microtrauma associated with aerobic distance training. DTI’s ability to inspect microstructural characteristics may pose it as an addition tool to conventional imaging techniques for athletes.

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Michel Cakici¹, Donnie Cameron², Karin J Naarding^1,3, Erik H Niks¹, and Hermien E Kan^2
1Neurology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ²C J Gorter MRI Center, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ³Rehabilitation, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Keywords: Muscle, Fat, Neuromuscular

Skeletal muscle fat fraction determined using quantitative MRI is a promising outcome measure in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). However, fat fraction varies along the length of muscles in the lower limb, hampering consistency of longitudinal assessments. Our results show that fat fraction also varies over muscles in the upper limb. This variability is reduced when assessments are standardized at 40% of the humerus length. This is important for reproducibly measuring the fat fraction in the muscles of the upper limb in DMD in clinical trials and follow-up.  

Shi Yin¹ and Dou Weiqiang^2
1The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China, ²GE Healthcare, MR Research, Beijing, P.R. China, Beijing, China

Keywords: Muscle, Quantitative Imaging

This study aims to investigate if MR technology can be applied to quantitatively evaluate the atrophy and fatty infiltration of gluteal and multifidus muscles in patients with lumbosacral nerve root compression. By quantitative evaluating 88 patients, we found the the change of multifidus muscle is related to the level of compressed nerve root and duration. As an indirect manifestation of nerve root compression, muscle change can help diagnosis in conventional lumbar MR images. Muscle content, especially that of multifidus is suggested to be a good indicator to complete the postoperative evaluation.

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Jaekyun Ryu¹, Won Beom Jung¹, Chuluunbaatar Otgonbaatar², Jinil Park³, Juho Kim¹, Jeonghak Song⁴, and Hackjoon Shim^1,4
1Medical Imaging AI Research Center, Canon Medical Systems Korea, Seoul, Korea, Republic of, ²College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, Republic of, ³Department of Intelligent Precision Healthcare, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, Republic of, ⁴Magnetic Resonance Business Unit, Canon Medical Systems Korea, Seoul, Korea, Republic of

Keywords: Muscle, Muscle

The changes in T₂ driven by water content, oxygenation, pH, and blood volume in tissue altered during intense physical activity provides chance to measure the muscle performance. In this study, we investigated feasibility of dynamic T₂ measurement for exercise-induced thigh muscle activity using conventional fast spin-echo (FASE, Fast Advanced Spin Echo) and ultrafast spin-echo EPI (SE-EPI) with 3T MRI. 

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Linda Heskamp¹, Lara Schlaffke², and Martijn Froeling^1
1Radiology, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, ²Neurology, BG-University Hospital Bergmannsheil gGmbH, Bochum, Germany

Keywords: Muscle, Muscle

Spontaneous motor unit (MU) contractions (fasciculation) are a hallmark of motor neuron diseases and can be measured with motor unit MRI. Previous work used a dedicated sequence with one optimized b-value. Here, we demonstrated that muscle DTI with variable b-values can also detect fasciculation. This allows simultaneous assessment of muscle architecture and fasciculation. Furthermore, we presented a retrospective analysis of fasciculation in healthy cohort muscle DTI data. This reveals higher and more variable fasciculation in lower legs compared to upper legs, and stable fasciculation distribution in repeated measures. Fasciculation detection in patients should therefore preferably focus on the upper legs.

Xin Shi¹, Yueluan Jiang², Lei Zhang¹, Jiping Wang¹, Dongdong Qiu¹, and Shiyu Guo^1
1the First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China, ²MR Scientific Marketing, Siemens Healthineers, Beijing, China

Keywords: Muscle, Fat

Fat free muscle area (FFMA) is an important measurement to evaluate sarcopenia and myosteatosis, and it is associated with poor prognosis in patients with chronic liver and oncologic diseases. FFMA was measured on T2WI-TSE sequence in previous study, which is not in routine MRI workflow, and the scanning time of T2WI-TSE sequence is obviously longer than T1WI edixon sequence, so we develop a method to measure FFMA by T1WI edixon sequence in clinical liver MRI sequence and explore a clinical friendly sarcopenia measurement.

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Bragi Sveinsson^1,2, Robert L Barry^1,2,3, Matthew S Rosen^1,2,4, and Reza Sadjadi^5
1Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ²Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, ³Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology,, Cambridge, MA, United States, ⁴Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States, ⁵Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

Keywords: Nerves, Quantitative Imaging

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) is a neuromuscular disease causing progressive loss of muscle mass and function as well as nerve damage. Quantitative MRI offers the ability to investigate the condition of nerves and skeletal muscle non-invasively. In this work, we report findings from measuring various quantitative neuromuscular metrics in four CMT1A patients in high-resolution images obtained at 7T, measured at two time points.

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Enlin Qian¹, Pavan Poojar², Maggie Fung³, Zhezhen Jin⁴, John Thomas Vaughan¹, Devashish Shrivastava¹, David Gultekin¹, and Sairam Geethanath^2
1Columbia Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, ²Accessible MR Laboratory, Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Institute, Dept. of Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai, New York, NY, United States, ³GE Healthcare, New York, NY, United States, ⁴Department of Biostatistics, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States

Keywords: Safety, Safety

We explored T₁-based magnetic resonance fingerprinting thermometry (MRFT) and compared it with proton resonance frequency shift (PRFS) thermometry in ex vivo bovine muscle data. We conducted temperature sensitivity calibration experiments for both methods. We compared MRFT and PRFS thermometry predicted temperatures in bovine muscles, validated by fluoroptic probe measurements. We observed strong correlation in temperature sensitivity calibration experiments (R²>0.958). Both methods predict temperature accurately (RMSE<1.37 ℃ and RMSE<0.93 ℃ for MRFT and PRFS, over a range of 25 ℃). We observed strong correlation between PRFS and MRFT predicted temperature in heated bovine muscle (R²>0.93).

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Mahsa Salimi Majd¹, Yang Yang¹, Heiko Tzschätzsch¹, Steffen Görner¹, Jürgen Braun¹, Ingolf Sack¹, and Jing Guo^1
1Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Keywords: Elastography, Elastography

In this study, DTI and multifrequency MR elastography (MRE) were applied to 6 subjects to investigate the changes of fiber orientation and the biomechanical properties of the lower leg muscle during passive plantarflexion and dorsiflexion. Using the pentation angle estimated from DTI, MRE data were processed to obtain both isotropic shear wave speed (c) and anisotropic shear moduli (μ₁₂, μ₁₃) as well as Young’s modulus (E₃). Preliminary findings showed significant changes of the biophysical properties upon lower leg muscle contraction.