Abstract #3522

3D Strain Rate Mapping of the Calf Muscle and Correlation of Strain Rate Orientation to Muscle Fiber Direction.

Usha Sinha¹, Ali Moghadasi², Shantanu Sinha³

¹Physics, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, United States; ²University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States; ³Radiology, University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States

The objective quantification of regional muscle deformation is a valuable clinical tool to evaluate normal and diseased muscle. 2D Strain and strain rate are kinematic properties that have been used to characterize myocardial and lingual deformation. However, the strain rate is 3 Dal as the tissue deformations are 3 dimensional. 3D strain rate measurement is challenging and requires 4D data acquisition. We report here, 3D strain tensor mapping of the medial gastrocnemius and show that the eigenvector associated with the negative eigenvalue deviates by 8-12o from the muscle fiber direction determined from diffusion tensor imaging.