Abstract #1917

Quantitative MRI Analysis of Two Icing Techniques in Skeletal Muscle Injury in a Rat Hind Limb Model

Thomas Neuberger¹, Andrew Webb², Eric Fontaine³, Nicole McBrier³

¹Huck Institute, Penn State University, USA; ²Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands; ³Kinesiology, Penn State University

Cooling of acute contusion injuries can help reduce the extent and duration of injury. In this study the effect of two different cooling schemes was probed using quantitative volumetric and relaxation time MRI measurements. A continuous cooling approach in which cooling was applied for 6 hours was compared to a cooling scheme which consisted of 30 minute cooling periods and 1 hour non-cooling periods for a total of 6 hours. The results suggest that intermittent cooling for 30 minutes may be just as effective as continuous cooling.