Body Mass Normalization for Ultrasound Measurements of Adolescent Lateral Abdominal Muscle Thickness

• Published in: Journal of ultrasound in medicine 2017-04, Vol.36 (4), p.775-782
• Main Authors: Linek, Pawel, Saulicz, Edward, Wolny, Tomasz, Myśliwiec, Andrzej
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: abdominal muscles; Abdominal Muscles - anatomy & histology; adolescence allometric parameter; Adolescent; body mass; Body Weight; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Male; Transducers; Ultrasonography; ultrasound
• ISSN: 0278-4297; 1550-9613
• DOI: 10.7863/ultra.16.03086

Objectives 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