ORCID Profile
0000-0001-8277-5026
Current Organisations
Queensland University of Technology
,
University of New South Wales
,
Neuroscience Research Australia
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Biomechanics | Biomechanical Engineering | Biomedical Engineering
Expanding Knowledge in Engineering | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences |
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.JBIOMECH.2019.01.043
Abstract: For detailed analyses of muscle adaptation mechanisms during growth, ageing or disease, reliable measurements of muscle architecture are required. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and DTI tractography have been used to reconstruct the architecture of human muscles in vivo. However, muscle architecture measurements reconstructed with conventional DTI techniques are often anatomically implausible because the reconstructed fascicles do not terminate on aponeuroses, as real muscle fascicles are known to do. In this study, we tested the reliability of an anatomically constrained DTI-based method for measuring three-dimensional muscle architecture. Anatomical magnetic resonance images and diffusion tensor images were obtained from the left legs of eight healthy participants on two occasions one week apart. Muscle volumes, fascicle lengths, pennation angles and fascicle curvatures were measured in the medial and lateral gastrocnemius, soleus and the tibialis anterior muscles. Averaged across muscles, the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.99 for muscle volume, 0.81 for fascicle length, 0.73 for pennation angle and 0.76 for fascicle curvature. Measurements of muscle architecture obtained using conventional DTI tractography were highly sensitive to variations in the stopping criteria for DTI tractography. The application of anatomical constraints reduced this sensitivity significantly. This study demonstrates that anatomically constrained DTI tractography can provide reliable and robust three-dimensional measurements of whole-muscle architecture. The algorithms used to constrain tractography have been made publicly available.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2020
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-05-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41393-019-0284-2
Abstract: Pretest-posttest design. To investigate mechanisms by which short-term resistance training (6 weeks) increases strength of partially paralysed muscles in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). Community-based setting, Sydney, Australia. Ten community-dwelling people with partial paralysis of elbow flexor, elbow extensor, knee flexor or knee extensor muscles following SCI (range 5 months to 14 years since injury). Muscle architecture and strength were assessed before and after participants underwent a six week strength-training program targeting one partially paralysed muscle group. The outcome of primary interest was physiological cross sectional area (PCSA) of the trained muscle group measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Other outcomes were changes in mean muscle fascicle length, muscle volume, pennation angle, isometric strength and muscle strength graded on a 13-point scale. The mean increase in maximal isometric muscle strength was 14% (95% CI, -3 to 30%) and 1.5 points (95% CI, 0.5 to 2.5) on the 13-point manual muscle test. There was no evidence of a change in muscle architecture. This study is the first to examine the mechanisms by which voluntary strength training increases strength of partially paralysed muscles in people with SCI. The data suggest that strength gains produced by six weeks of strength training are not caused by changes in muscle architecture. This suggests short-term strength gains are due to increased neural drive or an increase in specific muscle tension.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.HUMOV.2011.08.006
Abstract: This paper aims to develop an EMG-driven model of the shoulder that can consider possible muscle co-contractions. A musculoskeletal shoulder model (the original model) is modified such that measured EMGs can be used as model-inputs (the EMG-driven model). The model is validated by using the in-vivo measured glenohumeral-joint reaction forces (GH-JRFs). Three patients carrying instrumented hemi-arthroplasty were asked to perform arm abduction and forward-flexion up to maximum possible elevation, during which motion data, EMG, and in-vivo GH-JRF were measured. The measured EMGs were normalized and together with analyzed motions served as model inputs to estimate the GH-JRF. All possible combinations of input EMGs ranging from a single signal to all EMG signals together were tested. The 'best solution' was defined as the combination of EMGs which yielded the closest match between the model and the experiments. Two types of inconsistencies between the original model and the measurements were observed including a general GH-JRF underestimation and a GH-JRF drop above 90° elevation. Both inconsistencies appeared to be related to co-contraction since inclusion of EMGs could significantly (p<.05) improve the predicted GH-JRF (up to 45%). The developed model has shown the potential to successfully take the existent muscle co-contractions of patients into account.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2023
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-02-2013
DOI: 10.1080/10255842.2012.753067
Abstract: The parameters that describe the soft tissue structures are among the most important anatomical parameters for subject-specific biomechanical modelling. In this paper, we study one of the soft tissue parameters, namely muscle attachment sites. Two new methods are proposed for transformation of the muscle attachment sites of any reference scapula to any destination scapula based on four palpable bony landmarks. The proposed methods as well as one previously proposed method have been applied for transformation of muscle attachment sites of one reference scapula to seven other scapulae. The transformation errors are compared among the three methods. Both proposed methods yield significantly less (p < 0.05) prediction error as compared to the currently available method. Furthermore, we investigate whether there exists a reference scapula that performs significantly better than other scapulae when used for transformation of muscle attachment sites. Seven different scapulae were used as reference scapula and their resulting transformation errors were compared with each other. In the considered statistical population, no such a thing as an ideal scapula was found. There was, however, one outlier scapula that performed significantly worse than the other scapulae when used as a reference. The effect of perturbations in both muscle attachment sites and other muscle properties is studied by comparing muscle force predictions of a musculoskeletal model between perturbed and non-perturbed versions of the model. It is found that 10 mm variations in muscle attachments have more significant effect on muscle force predictions than 10% variations in any of the other four analysed muscle properties.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-09-2021
DOI: 10.1002/NBM.4609
Abstract: Cerebral palsy is a neurological condition that is known to affect muscle growth. Detailed investigations of muscle growth require segmentation of muscles from MRI scans, which is typically done manually. In this study, we evaluated the performance of 2D, 3D, and hybrid deep learning models for automatic segmentation of 11 lower leg muscles and two bones from MRI scans of children with and without cerebral palsy. All six models were trained and evaluated on manually segmented T 1 ‐weighted MRI scans of the lower legs of 20 children, six of whom had cerebral palsy. The segmentation results were assessed using the median Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), average symmetric surface distance (ASSD), and volume error (VError) of all 13 labels of every scan. The best performance was achieved by H‐DenseUNet, a hybrid model (DSC 0.90, ASSD 0.5 mm, and VError 2.6 cm 3 ). The performance was equivalent to the inter‐rater performance of manual segmentation (DSC 0.89, ASSD 0.6 mm, and VError 3.3 cm 3 ). Models trained with the Dice loss function outperformed models trained with the cross‐entropy loss function. Near‐optimal performance could be attained using only 11 scans for training. Segmentation performance was similar for scans of typically developing children (DSC 0.90, ASSD 0.5 mm, and VError 2.8 cm 3 ) and children with cerebral palsy (DSC 0.85, ASSD 0.6 mm, and VError 2.4 cm 3 ). These findings demonstrate the feasibility of fully automatic segmentation of in idual muscles and bones from MRI scans of children with and without cerebral palsy.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.CLINBIOMECH.2019.06.013
Abstract: Children with cerebral palsy frequently have ankle contractures which may be caused by changes in architecture of calf muscles. Here, we compared the architecture of medial gastrocnemius muscles in children with unilateral cerebral palsy and typically developing children using novel imaging techniques. Muscle volumes, fascicle lengths, pennation angles and physiological cross-sectional areas were measured from diffusion tensor images and mDixon scans obtained from 20 ambulant children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy who had ankle contractures (age 11 ± 3 years mean ± standard deviation) and 20 typically developing children (11 ± 4 years). In children with cerebral palsy, the more-affected side had, on average, 13° less dorsiflexion range and the medial gastrocnemius muscle had 4.9 mm shorter fascicles, 50 cm Three-dimensional measurement of whole medial gastrocnemius muscles confirmed that the architecture of muscles on the more-affected side of children with cerebral palsy differs from the less-affected side and from muscles of typically developing children. Reductions in fascicle length, muscle volume and physiological cross-sectional area may contribute to muscle contracture.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 06-04-2014
Abstract: Patient-specific biomechanical models including patient-specific finite-element (FE) models are considered potentially important tools for providing personalized healthcare to patients with musculoskeletal diseases. A multi-step procedure is often needed to generate a patient-specific FE model. As all involved steps are associated with certain levels of uncertainty, it is important to study how the uncertainties of in idual components propagate to final simulation results. In this study, we considered a specific case of this problem where the uncertainties of the involved steps were known and the aim was to determine the uncertainty of the predicted strain distribution. The effects of uncertainties of three important components of patient-specific models, including bone density, musculoskeletal loads and the parameters of the material mapping relationship on the predicted strain distributions, were studied. It was found that the number of uncertain components and the level of their uncertainty determine the uncertainty of simulation results. The ‘average’ uncertainty values were found to be relatively small even for high levels of uncertainty in the components of the model. The ‘maximum’ uncertainty values were, however, quite high and occurred in the areas of the scapula that are of the greatest clinical relevance. In addition, the uncertainty of the simulation result was found to be dependent on the type of movement analysed, with abduction movements presenting consistently lower uncertainty values than flexion movements.
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 05-2019
DOI: 10.1152/JAPPLPHYSIOL.00672.2018
Abstract: Skeletal muscles’ primary function in the body is mechanical: to move and stabilize the skeleton. As such, their mechanical behavior is a key aspect of their physiology. Recent developments in medical imaging technology have enabled quantitative studies of passive muscle mechanics, ranging from measurements of intrinsic muscle mechanical properties, such as elasticity and viscosity, to three-dimensional muscle architecture and dynamic muscle deformation and kinematics. In this review we summarize the principles and applications of contemporary imaging methods that have been used to study the passive mechanical behavior of skeletal muscles. Elastography measurements can provide in vivo maps of passive muscle mechanical parameters, and both MRI and ultrasound methods are available (magnetic resonance elastography and ultrasound shear wave elastography, respectively). Both have been shown to differentiate between healthy muscle and muscles affected by a broad range of clinical conditions. Detailed muscle architecture can now be depicted using diffusion tensor imaging, which not only is particularly useful for computational modeling of muscle but also has potential in assessing architectural changes in muscle disorders. More dynamic information about muscle mechanics can be obtained using a range of dynamic MRI methods, which characterize the detailed internal muscle deformations during motion. There are several MRI techniques available (e.g., phase-contrast MRI, displacement-encoded MRI, and “tagged” MRI), each of which can be collected in synchrony with muscle motion and postprocessed to quantify muscle deformation. Together, these modern imaging techniques can characterize muscle motion, deformation, mechanical properties, and architecture, providing complementary insights into skeletal muscle function.
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 08-02-2021
DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002568
Abstract: The accurate quantification of the proportion of fat in human muscles could help monitor disease status and test effectiveness of interventions in people with neurological conditions whose skeletal muscles are frequently infiltrated with fat. We compared two commonly used magnetic resonance imaging methods to quantify fat in muscles. Measurements were obtained before and after 6 or 8 wk of strength training in a total of 116 muscles spanning the range of intramuscular fat proportions observed in able-bodied young adults and people with spinal cord injury. We successfully measured fat proportions in all muscles using the mDixon method but were unable to obtain plausible measurements with the T1-weighted method from muscles of able-bodied in iduals or from the leaner 23% of muscles of people with spinal cord injury (muscles with less than approximately 8% fat). In muscles with more fat, measurements obtained with the two methods agreed well (intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.88 mean absolute difference, 5%). We also found that, compared with the T1-weighted method, the mDixon method provides a more detailed characterization of fat infiltration in muscle and a less variable measurement of the effect of training on the proportion of fat. The mDixon method showed that 6 or 8 wk of strength training did not appreciably change the proportion of intramuscular fat in either people with spinal cord injury or able-bodied people. On the basis of these findings, we recommend the use of mDixon methods in preference to T1-weighted methods to determine the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing intramuscular fat.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2023
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-03-2013
DOI: 10.1007/S11517-013-1065-2
Abstract: Musculoskeletal models are intended to be used to assist in prevention and treatments of musculoskeletal disorders. To capture important aspects of shoulder dysfunction, realistic simulation of clavicular and scapular movements is crucial. The range of motion of these bones is dependent on thoracic, clavicular and scapular anatomy and therefore different for each in idual. Typically, patient or subject measurements will therefore not fit on a model that uses a cadaveric morphology. Up till now, this problem was solved by adjusting measured bone rotations such that they fit on the model, but this leads to adjustments of on average 3.98° and, in some cases, even more than 8°. Two novel methods are presented that decrease this discrepancy between experimental data and simulations. For one method, the model is scaled to fit the subject, leading to a 34 % better fit compared to the existing method. In the other method, the set of possible joint rotations is increased by allowing some variation on motion constraints, resulting in a 42 % better fit. This change in kinematics also affected the kinetics: muscle forces of some important scapular stabilizing muscles, as predicted by the Delft Shoulder and Elbow Model, were altered by maximally 17 %. The effect on the glenohumeral joint contact force was however marginal (1.3 %). The methods presented in this paper might lead to more realistic shoulder simulations and can therefore be considered a step towards (clinical) application, especially for applications that involve scapular imbalance.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2023
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2021
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2020
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 05-2019
DOI: 10.1152/JAPPLPHYSIOL.00673.2018
Abstract: This review, the first in a series of minireviews on the passive mechanical properties of skeletal muscles, seeks to summarize what is known about the muscle deformations that allow relaxed muscles to lengthen and shorten. Most obviously, when a muscle lengthens, muscle fascicles elongate, but this is not the only mechanism by which muscles change their length. In pennate muscles, elongation of muscle fascicles is accompanied by changes in pennation and changes in fascicle curvature, both of which may contribute to changes in muscle length. The contributions of these mechanisms to change in muscle length are usually small under passive conditions. In very pennate muscles with long aponeuroses, fascicle shear could contribute substantially to changes in muscle length. Tendons experience moderate axial strains even under passive loads, and, because tendons are often much longer than muscle fibers, even moderate tendon strains may contribute substantially to changes in muscle length. Data obtained with new imaging techniques suggest that muscle fascicle and aponeurosis strains are highly nonuniform, but this is yet to be confirmed. The development, validation, and interpretation of continuum muscle models informed by rigorous measurements of muscle architecture and material properties should provide further insights into the mechanisms that allow relaxed muscles to lengthen and shorten.
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 04-2017
DOI: 10.1152/JAPPLPHYSIOL.00976.2016
Abstract: There are few comprehensive investigations of the changes in muscle architecture that accompany muscle contraction or change in muscle length in vivo. For this study, we measured changes in the three-dimensional architecture of the human medial gastrocnemius at the whole muscle level, the fascicle level and the fiber level using anatomical MRI and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Data were obtained from eight subjects under relaxed conditions at three muscle lengths. At the whole muscle level, a 5.1% increase in muscle belly length resulted in a reduction in both muscle width (mean change −2.5%) and depth (−4.8%). At the fascicle level, muscle architecture measurements obtained at 3,000 locations per muscle showed that for every millimeter increase in muscle-tendon length above the slack length, average fascicle length increased by 0.46 mm, pennation angle decreased by 0.27° (0.17° in the superficial part and 0.37° in the deep part), and fascicle curvature decreased by 0.18 m −1 . There was no evidence of systematic variation in architecture along the muscle’s long axis at any muscle length. At the fiber level, analysis of the diffusion signal showed that passive lengthening of the muscle increased diffusion along fibers and decreased diffusion across fibers. Using these measurements across scales, we show that the complex shape changes that muscle fibers, whole muscles, and aponeuroses of the medial gastrocnemius undergo in vivo cannot be captured by simple geometrical models. This justifies the need for more complex models that link microstructural changes in muscle fibers to macroscopic changes in architecture. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Novel MRI and DTI techniques revealed changes in three-dimensional architecture of the human medial gastrocnemius during passive lengthening. Whole muscle belly width and depth decreased when the muscle lengthened. Fascicle length, pennation, and curvature changed uniformly or near uniformly along the muscle during passive lengthening. Diffusion of water molecules in muscle changes in the same direction as fascicle strains.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.JBIOMECH.2016.02.014
Abstract: The length and pennation of muscle fascicles are frequently measured using ultrasonography. Conventional ultrasonography imaging methods only provide two-dimensional images of muscles, but muscles have complex three-dimensional arrangements. The most accurate measurements will be obtained when the ultrasound transducer is oriented so that endpoints of a fascicle lie on the ultrasound image plane and the image plane is oriented perpendicular to the aponeurosis, but little is known about how to find this optimal transducer orientation in the frequently-studied medial gastrocnemius muscle. In the current study, we determined the optimal transducer orientation at 9 sites in the medial gastrocnemius muscle of 8 human subjects by calculating the angle of misalignment between three-dimensional muscle fascicles, reconstructed from diffusion tensor images, and the plane of a virtual ultrasound image. The misalignment angle was calculated for a range of tilts and rotations of the ultrasound transducer relative to a reference orientation that was perpendicular to the skin and parallel to the tibia. With the transducer in the reference orientation, the misalignment was substantial (mean across sites and subjects of 6.5°, range 1.4 to 20.2°). However for all sites and subjects a near-optimal alignment (on average 2.6°, range 0.5° to 6.0°) could be achieved by maintaining 0° tilt and applying a small rotation (typically less than 10°). On the basis of these data we recommend that ultrasonographic measurements of medial gastrocnemius muscle fascicle architecture be obtained, at least for relaxed muscles under static conditions, with the transducer oriented perpendicular to the skin and nearly parallel to the tibia.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.CLINBIOMECH.2019.07.001
Abstract: The forces acting on the human clavicle in vivo are difficult if not impossible to measure. The goal of this study is to quantify the forces acting on the human clavicle during shoulder abduction, forward humeral elevation and three activities of daily living using the Delft Shoulder and Elbow Model. The Delft Shoulder and Elbow Model and a computed tomography scan of a clavicle were used to calculate the forces and moments acting on the entire clavicle and on three planes within the middle third of the clavicle during the simulated movements. The largest resultant force simulated across the clavicle was 126 N during abduction. Maximum resultant moments of 2.4 Nm were identified during both abduction and forward humeral elevation. The highest forces in the middle third of the clavicle were of a compressive nature along the longitudinal axis of the clavicle, increasing to 97 N during forward humeral elevation and 91 N during abduction. Forces in opposite direction along the y-axis were identified on either side of the conoid ligament. The three simulated activities of daily living had similar ranges of forces and moments irrespective of the sagittal plane in which these activities were performed. Peak forces occurred at different locations on the middle third of the clavicle during different movements. The results create an understanding of the forces and their distribution across the clavicle during activities of daily living. These data may be helpful in the development of clavicular fixation devices. Biomechanical study.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-08-2022
DOI: 10.1111/JOA.13539
Abstract: Assessment of regional muscle architecture is primarily done through the study of animals, human cadavers, or using b‐mode ultrasound imaging. However, there remain several limitations to how well such measurements represent in vivo human whole muscle architecture. In this study, we developed an approach using diffusion tensor imaging and magnetic resonance imaging to quantify muscle fibre lengths in different muscle regions along a muscle's length and width. We first tested the between‐day reliability of regional measurements of fibre lengths in the medial (MG) and lateral gastrocnemius (LG) and found good reliability for these measurements (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.79 and ICC = 0.84, respectively). We then applied this approach to a group of 32 participants including males ( n = 18), females ( n = 14), young (24 ± 4 years) and older (70 ± 2 years) adults. We assessed the differences in regional muscle fibre lengths between different muscle regions and between in iduals. Additionally, we compared regional muscle fibre lengths between sexes, age groups, and muscles. We found substantial variability in fibre lengths between different regions within the same muscle and between the MG and the LG across in iduals. At the group level, we found no difference in mean muscle fibre length between males and females, nor between young and older adults, or between the MG and the LG. The high variability in muscle fibre lengths between different regions within the same muscle, possibly expands the functional versatility of the muscle for different task requirements. The high variability between in iduals supports the use of subject‐specific measurements of muscle fibre lengths when evaluating muscle function.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 09-06-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.CLINBIOMECH.2016.07.005
Abstract: Malunion of the clavicle with shortening after mid shaft fractures can give rise to long-term residual complaints. The cause of these complaints is as yet unclear. In this study we analysed data of an earlier experimental cadaveric study on changes of shoulder biomechanics with progressive shortening of the clavicle. The data was used in a musculoskeletal computer model to examine the effect of clavicle shortening on muscle function, expressed as maximal muscle moments for abduction and internal rotation. Clavicle shortening results in changes of maximal muscle moments around the shoulder girdle. The mean values at 3.6cm of shortening of maximal muscle moment changes are 16% decreased around the sterno-clavicular joint decreased for both ab- and adduction, 37% increased around the acromion-clavicular joint for adduction and 32% decrease for internal rotation around the gleno-humeral joint in resting position. Shortening of the clavicle affects muscle function in the shoulder in a computer model. This may explain for the residual complaints after short malunion with shortening. Basic Science Study. Biomechanics. Cadaveric data and computer model.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-06-2017
DOI: 10.1007/S10237-017-0923-5
Abstract: Determination of skeletal muscle architecture is important for accurately modeling muscle behavior. Current methods for 3D muscle architecture determination can be costly and time-consuming, making them prohibitive for clinical or modeling applications. Computational approaches such as Laplacian flow simulations can estimate muscle fascicle orientation based on muscle shape and aponeurosis location. The accuracy of this approach is unknown, however, since it has not been validated against other standards for muscle architecture determination. In this study, muscle architectures from the Laplacian approach were compared to those determined from diffusion tensor imaging in eight adult medial gastrocnemius muscles. The datasets were sub ided into training and validation sets, and computational fluid dynamics software was used to conduct Laplacian simulations. In training sets, inputs of muscle geometry, aponeurosis location, and geometric flow guides resulted in good agreement between methods. Application of the method to validation sets showed no significant differences in pennation angle (mean difference [Formula: see text] or fascicle length (mean difference 0.9 mm). Laplacian simulation was thus effective at predicting gastrocnemius muscle architectures in healthy volunteers using imaging-derived muscle shape and aponeurosis locations. This method may serve as a tool for determining muscle architecture in silico and as a complement to other approaches.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-03-2019
DOI: 10.1111/SMS.13407
Abstract: Muscle performance is closely related to the structure and function of tendons and aponeuroses, the sheet-like, intramuscular parts of tendons. The architecture of aponeuroses has been difficult to study with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) because these thin, collagen-rich connective tissues have very short transverse relaxation (T2) times and therefore provide a weak signal with conventional MRI sequences. Here, we validated measurements of aponeurosis dimensions from two MRI sequences commonly used in muscle-tendon research (mDixon and T1-weighted images), and an ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequence designed for imaging tissues with short T2 times. MRI-based measurements of aponeurosis width, length, and area of 20 sheep leg muscles were compared to direct measurements made with three-dimensional (3D) quantitative microdissection. The errors in measurement of aponeurosis width relative to the mean width were 1.8% for UTE, 3.7% for T1, and 18.8% for mDixon. For aponeurosis length, the errors were 7.6% for UTE, 1.9% for T1, and 21.0% for mDixon. Measurements from T1 and UTE scans were unbiased, but mDixon scans systematically underestimated widths, lengths, and areas of the aponeuroses. Using the same methods, we then found high inter-rater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients >0.92 for all measures) of measurements of the dimensions of the central aponeurosis of the human tibialis anterior muscle from T1-weighted scans. We conclude that valid and reliable measurements of aponeurosis dimensions can be obtained from UTE and from T1-weighted scans. When the goal is to study the macroscopic architecture of aponeuroses, UTE does not hold an advantage over T1-weighted imaging.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.JBIOMECH.2015.05.005
Abstract: Personalisation of model parameters is likely to improve biomechanical model predictions and could allow models to be used for subject- or patient-specific applications. This study evaluates the effect of personalising physiological cross-sectional areas (PCSA) in a large-scale musculoskeletal model of the upper extremity. Muscle volumes obtained from MRI were used to scale PCSAs of five subjects, for whom the maximum forces they could exert in six different directions on a handle held by the hand were also recorded. The effect of PCSA scaling was evaluated by calculating the lowest maximum muscle stress (σmax, a constant for human skeletal muscle) required by the model to reproduce these forces. When the original cadaver-based PCSA-values were used, strongly different between-subject σmax-values were found (σmax=106.1±39.9 N cm(-2)). A relatively simple, uniform scaling routine reduced this variation substantially (σmax=69.4±9.4 N cm(-2)) and led to similar results to when a more detailed, muscle-specific scaling routine was used (σmax=71.2±10.8 N cm(-2)). Using subject-specific PCSA values to simulate an shoulder abduction task changed muscle force predictions for the subscapularis and the pectoralis major on average by 33% and 21%, respectively, but was <10% for all other muscles. The glenohumeral (GH) joint contact force changed less than 1.5% as a result of scaling. We conclude that in idualisation of the model's strength can most easily be done by scaling PCSA with a single factor that can be derived from muscle volume data or, alternatively, from maximum force measurements. However, since PCSA scaling only marginally changed muscle and joint contact force predictions for submaximal tasks, the need for PCSA scaling remains debatable.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.JBIOMECH.2015.01.012
Abstract: In vivo measurements of muscle architecture provide insight into inter-in idual differences in muscle function and could be used to personalise musculoskeletal models. When muscle architecture is measured from ultrasound images, as is frequently done, it is assumed that fascicles are oriented in the image plane and, for some measurements, that the image plane is perpendicular to the aponeurosis at the intersection of fascicle and aponeurosis. This study presents an in vivo validation of these assumptions by comparing ultrasound image plane orientation to three-dimensional reconstructions of muscle fascicles and aponeuroses obtained with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and high-resolution anatomical MRI scans. It was found that muscle fascicles were oriented on average at 5.5±4.1° to the ultrasound image plane. On average, ultrasound yielded similar measurements of fascicle lengths to DTI (difference <3mm), suggesting that the measurements were unbiased. The absolute difference in length between any pair of measurements made with ultrasound and DTI was substantial (10mm or 20% of the mean), indicating that the measurements were imprecise. Pennation angles measured with ultrasound were significantly smaller than those measured with DTI (mean difference 6°). This difference was apparent only at the superficial insertion of the muscle fascicles so it was probably due to pressure on the skin applied by the ultrasound probes. It is concluded that ultrasound measurements of deep pennation angles and fascicle lengths in the medial gastrocnemius are unbiased but have a low precision and that superficial pennation angles are underestimated by approximately 10°. The low precision limits the use of ultrasound to personalise fascicle length in musculoskeletal models.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-07-2013
DOI: 10.1007/S11517-013-1099-5
Abstract: Musculoskeletal models have been developed to estimate internal loading on the human skeleton, which cannot directly be measured in vivo, from external measurements like kinematics and external forces. Such models of the shoulder and upper extremity have been used for a variety of purposes, ranging from understanding basic shoulder biomechanics to assisting in preoperative planning. In this review, we provide an overview of the most commonly used large-scale shoulder and upper extremity models and categorise the applications of these models according to the type of questions their users aimed to answer. We found that the most explored feature of a model is the possibility to predict the effect of a structural adaptation on functional outcome, for instance, to simulate a tendon transfer preoperatively. Recent studies have focused on minimising the mismatch in morphology between the model, often derived from cadaver studies, and the subject that is analysed. However, only a subset of the parameters that describe the model's geometry and, perhaps most importantly, the musculotendon properties can be obtained in vivo. Because most parameters are somehow interrelated, the others should be scaled to prevent inconsistencies in the model's structure, but it is not known exactly how. Although considerable effort is put into adding complexity to models, for ex le, by making them subject-specific, we have found little evidence of their superiority over current models. The current trend in development towards in idualised, more complex models needs to be justified by demonstrating their ability to answer questions that cannot already be answered by existing models.
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 03-2022
DOI: 10.1152/JAPPLPHYSIOL.00638.2021
Abstract: Muscle architecture is conventionally measured using simple scalar metrics such as muscle volume and average fascicle lengths. Here, a new framework is proposed for analysis of complex changes in three-dimensional architecture of whole human muscles from magnetic resonance and diffusion tensor imaging data. The general use of the framework is demonstrated through visualization, quantification, and statistical analysis of the effect of strength training, passive lengthening and cerebral palsy on three-dimensional muscle shape and architecture.
Publisher: American Physiological Society
Date: 07-2021
DOI: 10.1152/JAPPLPHYSIOL.01046.2020
Abstract: Rib movements over inspiratory capacity are comparable for healthy controls and participants with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease when normalized to the change in lung volume. The kinematics of the ribs during tidal breathing were described from four-dimensional computed tomography images. For large changes in lung volume with inspiratory capacity, pump-handle movements of the ribs are four times greater than bucket-handle movements, whereas at tidal volume, pump-handle movements are 20% smaller than bucket-handle movements.
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 31-08-2020
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 13-06-2016
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-04-2018
DOI: 10.1113/JP275527
Publisher: IEEE
Date: 28-03-2022
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 18-04-2018
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.4610
Abstract: Most data on the architecture of the human soleus muscle have been obtained from cadaveric dissection or two-dimensional ultrasound imaging. We present the first comprehensive, quantitative study on the three-dimensional anatomy of the human soleus muscle in vivo using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) techniques. We report three-dimensional fascicle lengths, pennation angles, fascicle curvatures, physiological cross-sectional areas and volumes in four compartments of the soleus at ankle joint angles of 69 ± 12° (plantarflexion, short muscle length average ± SD across subjects) and 108 ± 7° (dorsiflexion, long muscle length) of six healthy young adults. Microdissection and three-dimensional digitisation on two cadaveric muscles corroborated the compartmentalised structure of the soleus, and confirmed the validity of DTI-based muscle fascicle reconstructions. The posterior compartments of the soleus comprised 80 ± 5% of the total muscle volume (356 ± 58 cm 3 ). At the short muscle length, the average fascicle length, pennation angle and curvature was 37 ± 8 mm, 31 ± 3° and 17 ± 4 /m, respectively. We did not find differences in fascicle lengths between compartments. However, pennation angles were on average 12° larger ( p 0.01) in the posterior compartments than in the anterior compartments. For every centimetre that the muscle-tendon unit lengthened, fascicle lengths increased by 3.7 ± 0.8 mm, pennation angles decreased by −3.2 ± 0.9° and curvatures decreased by −2.7 ± 0.8 /m. Fascicles in the posterior compartments rotated almost twice as much as in the anterior compartments during passive lengthening. The homogeneity in fascicle lengths and inhomogeneity in pennation angles of the soleus may indicate a functionally different role for the anterior and posterior compartments. The data and techniques presented here demonstrate how DTI can be used to obtain detailed, quantitative measurements of the anatomy of complex skeletal muscles in living humans.
Start Date: 2020
End Date: 2023
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2019
End Date: 2023
Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2019
End Date: 2019
Funder: Department of Education, Skills and Employment
View Funded ActivityStart Date: 2020
End Date: 12-2024
Amount: $750,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded Activity