title: In vivo morphological and functional evaluation of the lateral pterygoid muscle: a diffusion tensor imaging study.
abstract: To explore the feasibility of morphological and functional evaluation of the lateral pterygoid muscle (LPM) by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in vivo.
  30 healthy volunteers underwent DTI with the jaw in the rest position, opening and clenching. Diffusion parameters of the superior head of the LPM (SHLP) and the inferior head of the LPM (IHLP) at different jaw positions were calculated.
  When the jaw was in the rest position, λ3of the SHLP was significantly lower than that of the IHLP; fractional anisotropy (FA) value of the SHLP was significant higher than that of the IHLP. There was no significant difference in λ1, λ2and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value. During jaw opening, there was significant increase of all three eigenvalues and ADC value, and significant decrease of FA value both at the SHLP and IHLP. Clenching caused a significant increase in the ADC and all three eigenvalues, and caused a significant decrease of FA at the SHLP. However, at the IHLP, the variations of all diffusion parameters by clenching in the intercuspal position showed no significance when compared with those at rest.
  The morphological and functional changes of LPM fibres caused by jaw movements could be sensitively detected by DTI which may serve as a new and non-invasive method for simultaneously investigating the functional and morphological features of the LPM during jaw movement.
  A new application of DTI is proposed for the morphological and functional evaluation of the LPMs. The results show that the significant change of three eigenvalues indicates the activity of the LPM in a specific jaw movement, a finding that shows the potential value of DTI serving as a new and non-invasive method for investigation of the LPM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Simin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ai
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Qiuxia
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Renfa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Chu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
authors.forename: Wenzhen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhu