Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 23, 2026

Use of Micro X-ray Computed Tomography with Phosphotungstic Acid Preparation to Visualize Human Fibromuscular Tissue
Published on: September 5, 2019
Automatic reconstruction of the muscle architecture from the superficial layer fibres data
1NTIS - New Technologies for the Information Society, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of West Bohemia, Plzeň, Czech Republic.
Background And Objective:
Physiological cross-sectional area (PCSA) of a muscle plays a significant role in determining the force contribution of muscle fascicles to skeletal movement. This parameter is typically calculated from the lengths of muscle fibres selectively sampled from the superficial layer of the muscle. However, recent studies have found that the length of fibres in the superficial layer often differs significantly (p < 0.5) from the length of fibres in the deep layer. As a result, PCSA estimation is inaccurate. In this paper, we propose a method to automatically reconstruct fibres in the whole volume of a muscle from those selectively sampled on the superficial layer.
Methods:
The method performs a centripetal Catmull-Rom interpolation of the input fibres within the volume of a muscle represented by its 3D surface model, automatically distributing the fibres among multiple heads of the muscle and shortening the deep fibres to support large attachment areas with extremely acute angles.
Results:
Our C++ implementation runs in a couple of seconds on commodity hardware providing realistic results for both artificial and real data sets we tested.
Conclusions:
The fibres produced by the method can be used directly to determine the personalised mechanical muscle functioning. Our implementation is publicly available for the researchers at https://mi.kiv.zcu.cz/.
Related Concept Videos
Classification of Skeletal Muscle Fibers
Slow-Twitch Muscle Fibers
Slow oxidative, muscle fibers appear red due to large numbers of capillaries and high levels of...
Fascicle Arrangement in Skeletal Muscles
The four primary types of muscle based on fascicle arrangement are:
Microscopic Anatomy of Skeletal Muscles
The muscle sarcolemma is a plasma membrane enclosing each muscle cell that conducts electrical signals called action potentials. The sarcolemma extends into the cell to form T-tubules, ensuring the neural impulses are uniformly distributed across the entire muscle...
Gross Anatomy of Skeletal Muscles
Formation of Muscle Fibers from Myoblasts
Muscle progenitor cells (MPCs) are formed from the myotomes. MPCs express genes that encode the transcription factors Pax3 and Pax7. Along with Pax 3/7, other transcription...

