Journal of Applied Physiology AJP: Renal Physiology
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J Appl Physiol (July 3, 2008). doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01204.2007
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Submitted on November 12, 2007
Accepted on June 26, 2008

MRI analysis of structural changes in skeletal muscles and surrounding tissues following long-term walking exercise with training equipment

Ryusuke Nakai1*, Takashi Azuma1, Mai Sudo2, Shin-ichi Urayama3, Osamu Takizawa4, and Sadami Tsutsumi1

1 Department of Medical Simulation Engineering, Research Center for Nano Medical Engineering, Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
2 Human Science Research Center, Wacoal Corp., Japan
3 Human Brain Research Center, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan
4 Medical Solutions Marketing Division, Siemens Asahi Medical Technologies Ltd, Japan

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rnakai{at}frontier.kyoto-u.ac.jp.

Muscular recovery after exercise is an important topic in sports medicine, and accurate and quantitative measurements of changes in muscle are required to assess muscular recovery. In the current study, we report a new analytical method to measure muscular changes quantitatively. The technique consists of three independent methods: image processing of two-dimensional MR images, morphological analysis using three-dimensional MR images, and Diffusion Tensor MRI. Using this method, we investigated changes in the quadriceps and biceps femoris and gluteus maximus muscles and surrounding tissues before and after one month of exercise wearing training equipment. The subjects were 21 healthy adult female volunteers, 14 of whom wore training equipment and 7 who wore normal equipment. The percentage of adipose tissue in muscle after exercise in subjects who wore training equipment was on average 4.4%(p<0.001) lower than that before exercise and the peak point of the dorsal hip after exercise with use of the equipment was on average 10.8 mm higher than that before exercise. Further, the fractional anisotropy of water diffusion in muscles increased by an average of 0.039(p<0.001) after exercise with use of training equipment. In contrast, there was no significant difference before and after exercise in subjects who wore normal equipment. These results show that walking exercise while wearing training equipment thickens and tightens the muscular fiber tissues. This noninvasive measurement approach may allow quantitation of the athletic ability of the muscles, which is not measured conventionally, and is an effective method for analyzing skeletal muscles.







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