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Measurements of Motor Function and Other Clinical Outcome Parameters in Ambulant Children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
Published on: January 12, 2019
Quantifying Lower Limb Muscle Stiffness as Ambulation Function Declines in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy with Acoustic
Chia-Wei Lin1, Po-Hsiang Tsui2, Chun-Hao Lu2
1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive muscular disease, but validated imaging tools to quantify muscle microstructure alteration as mobility declines are lacking. We aimed to determine the feasibility of using acoustic radiation force impulse shear-wave elastography (ARFI/SWE) in the quantitative assessment of lower limb muscle stiffness in DMD patients. Shear wave velocities (SWVs) of lower limbs were measured in 39 DMD patients and 36 healthy controls aged 3-20 y. Mean SWV values of the controls and of the DMD patients at different ambulatory stages were compared using analysis of variance with Bonferroni correction. The DMD group had increased lower limb muscle stiffness compared with controls. Stiffness of the tibialis anterior and medial gastrocnemius muscle decreased from ambulatory to early non-ambulatory stages, whereas stiffness of the rectus femoris muscle increased from ambulatory to late non-ambulatory stages. We describe how SWV changes in lower limb muscles have the potential to predict ambulatory decline in DMD.
