Characterization Of Passive Elastic Properties Of The Human Tibialis Anterior Muscle Using Supersonic Shear Wave Elastography

In a companion ex vivo study of chicken muscles [1], we demonstrated that muscle elasticity measured by Supersonic shear wave elastography (SWE) increases linearly with passive tension, and hence, SWE could be an indirect measurement of passive muscle force. Objectives of the present study were: (1) Determine the test-retest reliability of SWE for in vivo measurements of passive muscle elasticity of the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle; (2) Assess the relationship between elasticity and ankle angle of the TA; and (3) Extract physiologically meaningful parameters from the elasticity-angle curves for better quantification of passive elastic properties.