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Cross‐Sectional Area Measurement of Cervical Spinal Muscles
Author(s) -
Rombach N,
Pease A,
Stubbs N
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
equine veterinary journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.82
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 2042-3306
pISSN - 0425-1644
DOI - 10.1111/evj.12267_165
Subject(s) - medicine , multifidus muscle , cadaver , neck pain , magnetic resonance imaging , cervical vertebrae , anatomy , reproducibility , gold standard (test) , nuclear medicine , radiology , low back pain , pathology , mathematics , statistics , alternative medicine
I n people with neck pain, ultrasonography ( US ) can measure atrophy and response to physiotherapy in peri‐vertebral muscles of the cervical spine, i.e. m. multifidus and m. longus colli. This study compared the reproducibility of muscle cross‐sectional area ( CSA ) measurements made by US and MRI (the gold standard) at different levels in the equine cervical spine. Methods From US and MRI images of three mature pony cadavers, CSA was calculated at vertebral levels C3 ‐ C6 (m. multifidus) and C2 ‐ C5 (m. longus colli). ANOVA analysis compared US and MRI image acquisition reliability (n = 360) and CSA (n = 1080) among subjects and vertebral levels. Results For image acquisition of m. multifidus ( C3‐C5 ), the ICC (95% CI ) for MRI and US was 99% and 61%, respectively. Image acquisition was unreliable at C6. CSA calculation did not differ between MRI and US . For m. longus colli ( C3‐C5 ), the ICC for image acquisition was 100% and 88% for MRI and US , respectively. Image acquisition was unreliable at C2. The ICC for CSA calculation was 98% for MRI and 100% for US . For both muscles, the mean CSA was largest at C4 and C5 . Conclusions Based on these results, ultrasonography could be used in the live horse for reliable CSA measurement of m. multifidus and m. longus colli in the mid‐cervical spine. This technique may advance knowledge of causes and effects of neck pain in horses. Ethical Animal Research Approval for this study was obtained under Institutional A nimal C are and U se C ommittee number 02‐11/020‐00. The study was performed on material collected during post‐mortem examination. Explicit owner informed consent for participation in this study is not stated. Sources of funding: M ichigan S tate U niversity CVM E ndowed R esearch F unds. Competing interests: none.