Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 12, 2026
Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Skeletal Muscle Disease
Published on: December 18, 2016
Thigh muscle stiffness assessed with magnetic resonance elastography in hyperthyroid patients before and after
Sabine F Bensamoun1, Stacie I Ringleb, Qingshan Chen
1Biomechanics Laboratory, Division of Orthopedic Research, Mayo Clinic, College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Purpose:
To measure the stiffness of the vastus medialis (VM) in hyperthyroid patients before and after treatment.
Materials And Methods:
A total of five healthy euthyroid patients and five hyperthyroid patients were tested using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), which involves the induction of shear waves in the thigh muscles using a pneumatic driver at 90 Hz.
Results:
Among the pretreatment hyperthyroid cohort a lower stiffness was found when the muscle was relaxed (2.11 +/- 0.61 kPa) compared the stiffness following treatment of hyperthyroidism (5.52 +/- 1.52 kPa), which was accompanied by an improvement in the contractile function of the VM. Pretreatment muscle stiffness was also less than that of age matched healthy volunteers (4.56 +/- 0.40 kPa). The behavior of the waves was sensitive to the stage of this myopathy and to the amount of free thyroxine (FT4).
Conclusion:
The MRE technique provides a new tool to gain new insights into pathophysiology of thyroid associated and other muscle diseases and their response to treatment.
