Objective To observe the value of apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC)for quantitatively evaluating progressive muscle injury of rabbit limbs in early stage of high-voltage electrical burn.Methods Twenty healthy adult rabbits were selected to establish limb high-voltage electrical burn models,which were randomly divided into 0.5,24,48 and 72 h groups(each n=5).MR diffusion weighted imaging(DWI)was collected for each group at 0.5,24,48 and 72 h after modeling,and the injured core muscles of the right hind limb and the normal muscles of the contralateral limb were taken for HE staining.The muscle's ADC,muscle fiber density(MFD)and muscle fiber diameter(D)values at the injured core of current entry and exit were compared,and those of normal muscle were also analyzed.The correlations of ADC values in injured core muscle and MFD or D values were investigated.Results There were significant differences of ADC values of injured core muscle at both the entry and exit and normal muscle,also of ADC values of injured core muscle at the entry and exit within each group(all P＜0.05).ADC values of injured core muscle at the entry and exit decreased with time going(all P＜0.05),but ADC values of normal muscle were not significantly different among different time points(P＞0.05).MFD values of injured core muscle at the entry and exit decreased with time going(all P＜0.05),while MFD values of the normal muscle,D values of the injured core muscle at the entry and exit and normal muscle were not significantly different among time points(all P＞0.05).ADC value of the injured core muscle was positively correlated with MFD value and negatively correlated with D value(rs=0.846,r=-0.507,both P＜0.05).Conclusion ADC could quantitatively evaluate the progressive muscle injury of rabbit limbs in early stage of high-voltage electrical burn.