OBJECTIVEWe propose a cross-correlation method for automatic extraction of the pennation angle (PA) of the gastrocnemius (GM) muscle from ultrasound radiofrequency (RF) signals.

METHODSThe ultrasound RF signals of the GM muscles in tension condition from normal subjects and the simulated ultrasound signals were collected. After the starting point of tracking, a fascicle was selected in the reconstructed GM ultrasound image from the RF signals, and the fascicle and deep aponeurosis could be automatically tracked using the cross-correlation algorithm. The lines of the fascicle and deep aponeurosis were then drawn and the PA was calculated. The reproducibility of the proposed method and its consistency with the manual measurement method were tested.

RESULTSThe angles of the simulated fascicles were precisely extracted automatically. The difference between the experimental measurement and the theoretical values was less than 1°. The PA measured automatically and manually was 20.48°∓0.47° and 21.49°∓1.79°, respectively. The coefficient of variation (CV) of the two methods was less than 3% and the root-mean square error (RMSE) was less than 1°. Bland-Altman plot showed a good agreement between the proposed automatic method and the manual method.

CONCLUSIONThe proposed cross-correlation automatic measurement method can detect the orientation of the fascicle and deep aponeurosis and measure the PA based on ultrasound RF signals with serious speckle noise.