title: Quantitative Computed Tomography and Image Analysis for Advanced Muscle Assessment.
abstract: Medical imaging is of particular interest in the field of translational myology, as extant literature describes the utilization of a wide variety of techniques to non-invasively recapitulate and quantity various internal and external tissue morphologies. In the clinical context, medical imaging remains a vital tool for diagnostics and investigative assessment. This review outlines the results from several investigations on the use of computed tomography (CT) and image analysis techniques to assess muscle conditions and degenerative process due to aging or pathological conditions. Herein, we detail the acquisition of spiral CT images and the use of advanced image analysis tools to characterize muscles in 2D and 3D. Results from these studies recapitulate changes in tissue composition within muscles, as visualized by the association of tissue types to specified Hounsfield Unit (HU) values for fat, loose connective tissue or atrophic muscle, and normal muscle, including fascia and tendon. We show how results from these analyses can be presented as both average HU values and compositions with respect to total muscle volumes, demonstrating the reliability of these tools to monitor, assess and characterize muscle degeneration.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical and Neural Engineering, Háskólinn í Reykjavík , Reykjavík, Iceland.
authors.forename: Kyle Joseph
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Edmunds
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical and Neural Engineering, Háskólinn í Reykjavík , Reykjavík, Iceland.
authors.forename: Magnus K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Gíslason
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical and Neural Engineering, Háskólinn í Reykjavík , Reykjavík, Iceland.
authors.forename: Iris D
authors.initials: ID
authors.lastname: Arnadottir
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Fondazione Ospedale San Camillo , Venezia, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marcante
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Fondazione Ospedale San Camillo , Venezia, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Piccione
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biomedical and Neural Engineering, Háskólinn í Reykjavík, Reykjavík, Iceland; Landspítali, Reykjavík, Iceland.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gargiulo
keywords: FES; Quantitative Computed Tomography; advanced muscle assessment; image analysis