TY - JOUR
T1 - Surface wave elastography is a reliable method to correlate muscle elasticity, torque, and electromyography activity level
AU - Grinspan, Gustavo A.
AU - Cabral, H. V.
AU - Souza, Leonardo M. L.
AU - Oliveira, Liliam F.
AU - Aguiar, Sofía
AU - Blanco, Ernesto
AU - Benech, Nicolás
PY - 2021/8/2
Y1 - 2021/8/2
N2 - The shear elastic modulus is one of the most important parameters to characterize the mechanical behavior of soft tissues. In biomechanics, ultrasound elastography is the gold standard for measuring and mapping it locally in skeletal muscle in vivo. However, their applications are limited to the laboratory or clinic. Thus, low-frequency elastography methods have recently emerged as a novel alternative to ultrasound elastography. Avoiding the use of high frequencies, these methods allow obtaining a mean value of bulk shear elasticity. However, they are frequently susceptible to diffraction, guided waves, and near field effects, which introduces biases in the estimates. The goal of this work is to test the performance of the non-ultrasound surface wave elastography (NU-SWE), which is portable and is based on new algorithms designed to correct the incidence of such effects. Thus, we show its first application to muscle biomechanics. We performed two experiments to assess the relationships of muscle shear elasticity versus joint torque (experiment 1) and the electromyographic activity level (experiment 2). Our results were comparable regarding previous works using the reference ultrasonic methods. Thus, the NU-SWE showed its potentiality to get wide the biomechanical applications of elastography in many areas of health and sports sciences.
AB - The shear elastic modulus is one of the most important parameters to characterize the mechanical behavior of soft tissues. In biomechanics, ultrasound elastography is the gold standard for measuring and mapping it locally in skeletal muscle in vivo. However, their applications are limited to the laboratory or clinic. Thus, low-frequency elastography methods have recently emerged as a novel alternative to ultrasound elastography. Avoiding the use of high frequencies, these methods allow obtaining a mean value of bulk shear elasticity. However, they are frequently susceptible to diffraction, guided waves, and near field effects, which introduces biases in the estimates. The goal of this work is to test the performance of the non-ultrasound surface wave elastography (NU-SWE), which is portable and is based on new algorithms designed to correct the incidence of such effects. Thus, we show its first application to muscle biomechanics. We performed two experiments to assess the relationships of muscle shear elasticity versus joint torque (experiment 1) and the electromyographic activity level (experiment 2). Our results were comparable regarding previous works using the reference ultrasonic methods. Thus, the NU-SWE showed its potentiality to get wide the biomechanical applications of elastography in many areas of health and sports sciences.
KW - EMG activity
KW - elbow flexion torque
KW - non-ultrasound surface wave elastography
KW - shear elastic modulus
KW - skeletal muscle
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112481765&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.14814/phy2.14955
DO - 10.14814/phy2.14955
M3 - Article
SN - 2051-817X
VL - 9
JO - Physiological reports
JF - Physiological reports
IS - 15
M1 - e14955
ER -