PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate useful parameters for estimating gastrocnemius (GCM) muscle volume (MV) using ultrasonography (US) and anthropometry in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighteen legs from nine children with spastic CP aged 2 to 6 years were investigated in this study. Tibial length (TL) of each leg was measured and muscle thickness (MT) and anatomical cross-sectional area (aCSA) of GCM muscles were assessed using US. The volume of the GCM was measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The relationship of TL, MT, and aCSA with MV measured by MRI was investigated. Simple and multiple regression analyses were performed to establish muscle volume prediction equations. RESULTS: Resting MT, aCSA, and TL were highly related to MV of both medial and lateral head of GCM determined by MRI. The MV prediction equation based on simple regression analysis resulted in r2 values ranging from 0.591 to 0.832 (p<0.05). The r2 values were higher using aCSA as independent variable than using MT. The MV prediction equation based on multiple regression analysis resulted in r2 values ranging from 0.779 to 0.903 (p<0.05). However, the relatively high standard error of the estimate values ranged from 18.0-33.6% on simple regression and 15.5-25.6% on multiple regression. The contribution of aCSA was higher than that of MT for predicting MV of GCM. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated the suitability of US assessment of aCSA and MT combined with TL for estimating MV of GCM in children with spastic CP and showed that aCSA is more useful parameter than MT.
Cerebral Palsy/*pathology/ultrasonography ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Muscle, Skeletal/*pathology/ultrasonography

Sparganosis is a parasitic infection caused by the plerocercoid tapeworm larva of the genus Spirometra. Although the destination of the larva is often a tissue or muscle in the chest, abdominal wall, extremities, eyes, brain, urinary tract, spinal canal, and scrotum, intramuscular sparganosis is uncommon and therefore is difficult to distinguish from a soft tissue tumor. We report a case of intramuscular sparganosis involving the gastrocnemius muscle in an elderly patient who was diagnosed using ultrasonography and MRI and treated by surgical excision. At approximately 1 cm near the schwannoma at the right distal sciatic nerve, several spargana worms were detected and removed.
Aged ; Animals ; Histocytochemistry ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Microscopy ; Muscle, Skeletal/*parasitology/*pathology/surgery ; Sparganosis/*diagnosis/parasitology/*pathology/surgery ; Spirometra/*isolation & purification ; Ultrasonography

In the present study we made out an animal model on rabbit whose trigeminus and facialis nerves were simultaneously or only the latter one was severed. The pathological changes in facial muscle atrophy under different nerve injuries were investigated. The degeneration of contractile proteins of upper lip muscle -- myosin and actin was observed. In addition, we also examined the ultrastructural changes in the muscle atrophy in the two above-mentioned nerve injury cases. We observed that the intact trigeminus nerve could delay and lighten the atrophy of facialis-denervated facial muscle and attenuate the degeneration of myosin and actin, as well as decrease the increment of collagen and maintain the ultrastructure of the thick and thin muscle filaments. These results may provide the possibility of improvement of clinical treatment for facial muscle palsy.
Animals ; Denervation ; Facial Muscles ; innervation ; pathology ; Facial Nerve ; physiology ; surgery ; Female ; Muscle Fibers, Skeletal ; diagnostic imaging ; Muscular Atrophy ; pathology ; Rabbits ; Trigeminal Nerve ; physiology ; surgery ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVETo explore effects of color Doppler ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in diagnosis intramuscular hemangioma of skeletal muscle.

METHODSFrom December 2000 to January 2013, 54 patients treated by operation confirmed as intramuscular hemangioma of skeletal muscle by pathology postoperatively, there were 19 males and 35 females aged from 11 to 59 years old (averaged 33.6); the courses of disease ranged from 2.5 to 15 years with an average of 5.2 years. Thirty-eight patients were checked by color Doppler ultrasound, and 14 patients were inspected by MRI. All patients were treated by operation. Postoperative operative time, blood loss in operation, and complications and pathology postoperatively were observed, and IMH clinical effective evaluating standard were used to evaluate clinical outcomes.

RESULTSForty-three patients were followed up from 7 to 49 months with an average of 28.4 months. Operative time was (53 to 187) min with average of 76.3 min, blood loss was (70 to 350) ml with an average of 223.6 ml. No infections and death occurred. Thirty-five patients were diagnosed by color Doppler ultrasound and 13 patients were confirmed by MRI. Twenty patients were capillary type, 22 patients were spongy vascular type and 12 patients were mixed type according to Brown pathological type. In accordance with IMH clinical effective evaluating standard, 29 cases obtained excellent results, 8 moderate and 4 dissatisfaction and 2 poor.

CONCLUSIONColor doppler ultrasound and MRI get a high rate diagnosing patients with intramuscular hemangioma and have an significant valuable in clinical application, and surgical operation which has advantages of relieve symptoms obviously, improve life quality and reduce recurrence rate, could receive good curative effect.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Child ; Female ; Hemangioma ; diagnosis ; pathology ; surgery ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Muscle, Skeletal ; pathology ; Ultrasonography, Doppler, Color

To explore the value of conventional ultrasound combined with shear-wave elastography in the quantitative evaluation of sciatic nerve crush injury in rabbit models. Forty healthy male New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into four groups (=10 in each group):three crush injury (CI) groups (2,4,and 8 weeks after crush) and control group (without injury). The thickness and stiffness of the crushed sciatic nerves and denervated triceps surae muscles were measured at different time points and compared with histopathologic parameters. Inter-reader variability was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients. Compared with the control group,the inner diameters of the sciatic nerves significantly increased in the 2-week CI group [(1.65±0.34) mm (0.97±0.15) mm,=0.00] but recovered to the nearly normal level in the 8-week CI group [(1.12±0.18) mm (0.97±0.15) mm,=0.06];however,compared with control group [(8.75±1.02)kPa],the elastic modulus of the nerves increased significantly in all the CI groups [2-week:(14.77±2.53) kPa;4-week:(19.12±3.46) kPa;and 8-week:(28.39±5.26) kPa;all =0.00];pathologically,massive hyperplasia of collagen fibers were found in the nerve tissues. The thickness of denervated triceps surae muscle decreased gradually,and the elastic modulus decreased 2 weeks after injury but increased gradually in the following 6 weeks;pathologically,massive hyperplasia of collagen fibers and adipocytes infiltration were visible,along with decreased muscle wet-weight ratio and muscle fiber cross-sectional area. The inter-reader agreements were good. Conventional ultrasound combined with shear-wave elastography is feasible for the quantitative evaluation of the morphological and mechanical properties of crushed nerves and denervated muscles.
Animals ; Crush Injuries ; diagnostic imaging ; Elastic Modulus ; Elasticity Imaging Techniques ; Male ; Muscle, Skeletal ; innervation ; pathology ; Rabbits ; Random Allocation ; Sciatic Nerve ; injuries ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVETo assess the feasibility of usage of microbubbles conjugated with RGD peptides and contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEU) in detection of tumor angiogenesis.

METHODSLipid microbubbles (MB) were prepared, and the RGD peptides were covalently conjugated to the lipid shell of MB (MB(RGD)). Six nude mice with tumor created by dorsal inoculation of HepG2 tumor cells were used as the test group. Six nude mice without tumor were served as the control group. 10 minutes after bolus injection of MB and MB(RGD) randomly (30 min interval) via a tail vein catheter, CEU was performed on the tumors of the test group and the thigh skeletal muscles of control group. The video intensity (VI) of tumors and the skeletal muscles were measured. The tumors and the skeletal muscles were harvested for immunohistochemical examination.

RESULTSOnly a slight contrast enhancement of the tumor was seen with MB, and the VI was 5.33 ± 1.71. While a remarkable enhancement of the tumor was observed after injection of MB(RGD). The VI was up to 17.03 ± 3.58, 3.18 folds higher as compared with that obtained by injection of MB (P < 0.05). As expected, there were no obvious contrast enhancement of the skeletal muscles with both MB(RGD) and MB. There was a high expression of αvβ3-integrin in tumor neovascular endothelium, however, no apparent expression of αvβ3-integrin was observed in the skeletal muscle vascular endothelium.

CONCLUSIONCEU with MB(RGD) can be used to effectively evaluate the angiogenesis of tumors, and it may greatly contribute to the early judgement of the nature of tumor.

Animals ; Cell Line, Tumor ; Contrast Media ; Endothelium, Vascular ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; Female ; Humans ; Integrin alphaVbeta3 ; metabolism ; Liver Neoplasms ; blood supply ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; pathology ; Male ; Mice ; Mice, Nude ; Microbubbles ; Muscle, Skeletal ; blood supply ; Neoplasm Transplantation ; Neovascularization, Pathologic ; diagnostic imaging ; metabolism ; pathology ; Oligopeptides ; Ultrasonics ; methods ; Ultrasonography