Skip to main navigationSkip to main content
The University of Southampton
Computationally Intensive Imaging

Imaging Seminar Series Event

Time:
16:00
Date:
24 October 2013
Venue:
Room 2209 Life Sciences Building 85 Highfield Campus

For more information regarding this event, please telephone Dr Sumeet Mahajan on 023 8059 3591 or email S.Mahajan@soton.ac.uk .

Event details

Rehabilitative ultrasound imaging for assessing and retraining muscles

Ultrasound imaging (USI) offers a safe, portable and relatively affordable means of assessing patients in the clinical environment. Use of USI to assess muscle size and architecture has increased exponentially over the past 20 years and is often referred to as rehabilitative ultrasound imaging (RUSI). This application of ultrasound, primarily used by physiotherapists, is distinct from diagnostic musculoskeletal USI used by medical practitioners and radiographers to assess pathology, although physiotherapists can also undertake specific training for diagnostic purposes.

A major advantage of USI over other imaging modalities is that it enables real-time dynamic assessment of muscle contraction. Currently, RUSI is mainly used for researching conditions involving muscle wasting, such as back pain. Clinical use is growing, primarily using RUSI for biofeedback in retraining muscle contraction, rather than as a measurement tool.

This talk will overview the evidence emerging from research showing that RUSI is a valid and reliable tool for assessing muscle characteristics, and how these relate to function. Examples of how RUSI is proving to be a valuable tool for investigating mechanisms of muscle dysfunction and evaluating the effects of treatments will be highlighted. Examples of current and potential applications of RUSI for routine use in rehabilitation will be given, including ageing, joint disorders, sports injuries, neurological disorders, respiratory diseases, and deconditioning in cancer survivors and astronauts.

Scans of various muscles will illustrate the growing atlas of muscles being charted, revealing characteristic features that soon become recognisable, even to the novice eye.

Speaker information

Professor Maria Stokes,Faculty of Health Sciences

Privacy Settings