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Spin‐Lock Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Muscle in Patients With Autosomal Recessive Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy
Author(s) -
Franczak Malgorzata B,
Ulmer John L,
Jaradeh Safwan,
McDaniel James D,
Mark Leighton P,
Prost Robert W
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of neuroimaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1552-6569
pISSN - 1051-2284
DOI - 10.1111/jon200010273
Subject(s) - magnetic resonance imaging , medicine , muscular dystrophy , limb girdle muscular dystrophy , anatomy , nuclear magnetic resonance , radiology , biology , physics , mutation , biochemistry , gene
Spin‐lock imaging is a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique used to reflect the microstructural integrity of muscle. The purpose of this study was to characterize spin‐lock contrast (SLC) of calf muscles in limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD). The calf muscles of 5 patients with LGMD and 10 healthy volunteers were imaged with an off‐resonance magnetic resonance (MR) spin‐lock suppression pulse. Spin‐lock suppression ratios were calculated for anterior tibialis, posterior tibialis, soleus, and gastrocnemius muscles. Clinical assessments of muscle strength were compared to the spin‐lock suppression ratios in the LGMD group. Strong SLC was observed in healthy muscles, with mean (±SD) suppression ratios ranging from 51.2% (±3.6%) to 56.3% (± 1.3%). In diseased muscle, spin‐lock signal suppression was reduced by 8%–70%, demonstrating an inverse correlation between symptom duration and suppression ratios. Spinlock contrast in the patients with LGMD, as a reflection of tissue integrity, was best preserved in posterior tibialis, anterior tibialis, soleus, and gastrocnemius muscles in descending order. Clinical assessments did a poorer job of differentiating than SLC did and were in poor agreement with spin‐lock suppression ratios. Spinlock MRI can quantify microstructural changes in LGMD and appears to provide information not obtainable from clinical evaluations. This suggests that this noninvasive technique may be useful in evaluating the extent, progression, and response to therapy of LGMD.