A registration strategy to characterize DTI-observed changes in skeletal muscle architecture due to passive shortening

Melissa T Hooijmans, Carly A Lockard, Xingyu Zhou, Crystal Coolbaugh, Roberto P Guzman, Mariana E Kersh and Bruce M Damon

PLOS ONE, 2025, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: Skeletal muscle architecture is a key determinant of muscle function. Architectural properties such as fascicle length, pennation angle, and curvature can be characterized using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), but acquiring these data during a contraction is not currently feasible. However, an image registration-based strategy may be able to convert muscle architectural properties observed at rest to their contracted state. As an initial step toward this long-term objective, the aim of this study was to determine if an image registration strategy could be used to convert the whole-muscle average architectural properties observed in the extended joint position to those of a flexed position, following passive rotation. DTI and high-resolution fat/water scans were acquired in the lower leg of seven healthy participants on a 3T MR system in + 20° and −10° ankle positions. The diffusion and anatomical images from the two positions were used to propagate DTI fiber-tracts from seed points along a mesh representation of the aponeurosis of fiber insertion. The −10° and + 20° anatomical images were registered and the displacement fields were used to transform the mesh and fiber-tracts from the + 20° to the −10° position. Student’s paired t-tests were used to compare the mean architectural parameters between the original and transformed fiber-tracts. The whole-muscle average fiber-tract length, pennation angle, curvature, and physiological cross-sectional areas estimates did not differ significantly. DTI fiber-tracts in plantarflexion can be transformed to dorsiflexion position without significantly affecting the average architectural characteristics of the fiber-tracts. In the future, a similar approach could be used to evaluate muscle architecture in a contracted state.

Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0302675

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0302675

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