Julien Gondin1, Virginie Callot2,
Patrick J. Cozzone2, David Bendahan2, Guillaume Duhamel2
1Centre
de Rsonance Magntique Biologique et Mdicale (CRMBM) - UMR CNRS 6612,
Facult de Mdecine , Universit de la Mditerrane, Marseille, France; 2Centre
de Rsonance Magntique Biologique et Mdicale (CRMBM) - UMR CNRS 6612,
Facult de Mdecine, Universit de la Mditerrane, Marseille, France
We
investigated whether the DTI metrics were sensitive enough to structural
skeletal muscle fiber changes induced by both passive shortening and
lengthening of the thigh muscles. Eight healthy male subjects were examined
in a 1.5T whole-body MRI scanner. Images were randomly recorded from the
mid-thigh region with the knee joint positioned at 0 and at 45. Both the
vastus lateralis and biceps femoris muscles showed changes in diffusion
properties between the two positions whereas the DTI metrics of RF muscle
were kept constant. We hypothesized that the specifc changes in water
diffusivity observed in this study, reflect nonuniform microstructure changes
among the thigh muscles due to their complex muscle-tendon architectures.
Keywords