title: Body Mass Normalization for Ultrasound Measurements of Adolescent Lateral Abdominal Muscle Thickness.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to determine the value of the allometric parameter for ultrasound measurements of the thickness of the oblique external (OE), internal (OI), and transversus abdominis (TrA) muscles in the adolescent population. The allometric parameter is the slope of the linear regression line between the log transformed body mass and log transformed muscle size measurement.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 321 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 17, consisting of 160 boys and 161 girls. The participants were recruited from local schools and attended regular school classes at normal grade levels. All individuals with no signs of scoliosis (screening with use of a scoliometer), and no surgical procedures performed on the trunk area were included. A real-time ultrasound B-scanner with a linear array transducer was used to obtain images of the lateral abdominal muscles from both sides of the body.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The correlation between body mass and the OE muscle was r = 0.69; the OI muscle r = 0.68; and the TrA muscle r = 0.53 (in all cases, P < .0001). The allometric parameter for the OE was 0.88296; the OI 0.718756; and the TrA 0.60986. Using these parameters, no significant correlations were found between body mass and the allometric-scaled thickness of the lateral abdominal muscles.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Significant positive correlations exist between body mass and lateral abdominal muscle thickness assessed by ultrasound imaging. Therefore, it is reasonable to advise that the values of the allometric parameters for OE, OI, and TrA obtained in this study should be used in other studies performed on adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesitherapy and Special Methods in Physiotherapy, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Pawel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Linek
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesitherapy and Special Methods in Physiotherapy, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Saulicz
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesitherapy and Special Methods in Physiotherapy, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wolny
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinesitherapy and Special Methods in Physiotherapy, The Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Myśliwiec
mesh_terms: D000009:Abdominal Muscles / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D000293:Adolescent; D001835:Body Weight; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014159:Transducers; D014463:Ultrasonography
keywords: abdominal muscles; adolescence allometric parameter; body mass; ultrasound