300 Section - Relationship between lower limb muscle ultrasound measures and muscle strength in chronic spinal cord injury

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

6:00 PM - 7:30 PM PT

Presenting Author/Autor expositor(s)

JS

Jiho Song, BS

Research Assistant
ICORD
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Co-Author(s)

MD

Mathew IB Debenham, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher
University of British Columbia
Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
SW

Stephanie Wilkinson, BS

Research Assistant
ICORD
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
HW

Harvey IB Wu, MD

Research Manager
The University of British Columbia (ICORD)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
MB

Michael Berger, MD

Clinical Associate Professor
ICORD
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Objectives : Muscle strength is a key determinant of functional independence after spinal cord injury (SCI), yet common assessments require significant voluntary effort from clinicians and patients. Muscle thickness (MT) and echo intensity (EI) derived from ultrasound (US) may provide biomarkers of muscle properties after SCI while addressing the limitation of current measurement techniques; however, the relationship between US morphology and muscle strength in individuals with SCI have not been investigated. Our objective was to examine the association between MT and EI of lower-limb muscles and peak isometric torque in eight participants with traumatic motor-incomplete chronic SCI ( > 2 years from injury 5 males; 46.3±13.1years; 1C3, 2C4, 1C5, 2C6, 1C7) and eight age and sex-matched controls (42.4±14.6years).

Design: B-mode, axial US of the tibialis anterior (TA) and triceps surae, were acquired. Dorsiflexor and plantar flexor strength were assessed through maximal voluntary contractions via a custom-built dynamometer.

Results: Compared with controls, SCI produced 54% lower dorsiflexion and plantarflexion peak torque (p≤0.04). The plantar flexor MT were 13% smaller in SCI than controls (p=0.006), and EI was 33% greater (p=0.02). Peak torque did not correlate with MT in either muscle group (p >0.05), whereas EI showed negative correlations with dorsiflexion peak torque (r=−0.54, p=0.03) and plantarflexion peak torque (r=−0.58, p=0.018).

Conclusion: Overall, measures of muscle quality (EI) were moderately related to strength while measures of muscle quantity (MT) did not in chronic motor-incomplete SCI, supporting US EI as a potential surrogate for examining muscle strength.