Detection of Motor Endplates in Deep and Pennate Skeletal Muscles in-vivo using Ultrafast Ultrasound

Until now direct localization of motor endplates for any arbitrary muscle structure was reserved to cadaver studies or restricted to specific muscles in-vivo. Utilizing ultrafast ultrasound we report a versatile in-vivo method for the detection of motor endplate zones. To achieve this goal, we emplo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2020 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) pp. 1 - 7
Main Authors Leitner, Christoph, Vostrikov, Sergei, Penasso, Harald, Hager, Pascal A., Cossettini, Andrea, Benini, Luca, Baumgartner, Christian
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 07.09.2020
Subjects
high frame rate
in-vivo
motor endplate band
motor neuron
muscle contraction
muscle fascicle
Neuromuscular
pennate muscle
Probes
Skin
Software development management
Speckle
Transducers
ultrasonic
Ultrasonic imaging
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Summary:Until now direct localization of motor endplates for any arbitrary muscle structure was reserved to cadaver studies or restricted to specific muscles in-vivo. Utilizing ultrafast ultrasound we report a versatile in-vivo method for the detection of motor endplate zones. To achieve this goal, we employ a research ultrasound system with a linear array transducer probe to record ultrasound images of electrically-stimulated medial gastrocnemius muscles. An optical flow speckle tracking algorithm is used to track the points along a single fascicle. We localize motor endplates at intersection points where mechanical contraction waves diverge bidirectionally towards the fiber ends. Contrary to common experimental methods, our proposed ultrafast ultrasound-based approach allows to localize motor endplates also in deep and pennate muscles in-vivo. These results open up new applications for ultrasound in neuromuscular research.
ISSN:1948-5727
DOI:10.1109/IUS46767.2020.9251756