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. 2019 Aug;130(8):1460-1464.
doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2019.04.709. Epub 2019 May 10.

Quantitative ultrasound of muscle can detect corticosteroid effects

Maria G Martucci  1 , Courtney E McIlduff  1 , Carmen Shin  1 , Hilda V Gutierrez  1 , Joo Yeon Nam  1 , Patricia Greenstein  1 , Kester Phillips  1 , Erik J Uhlmann  1 , Eric T Wong  1 , Seward B Rutkove  2
Affiliations

Quantitative ultrasound of muscle can detect corticosteroid effects

Maria G Martucci et al. Clin Neurophysiol. 2019 Aug.

Abstract

Objectives: In this study, we sought to determine whether quantitative ultrasound (QUS) could detect the impact of corticosteroids on muscle in the absence of frank weakness.

Methods: QUS was performed on selected limb muscles of 20 brain tumor patients treated with dexamethasone and 30 healthy controls. Echointensity was quantified using gray scale level (GSL) analysis and compared between groups; correlation to corticosteroid exposure was also performed.

Results: Average 4-muscle GSL (±standard deviation) was greater in patients compared to controls (35.5 ± 5.61 arbitrary units (AU) versus 30.4 ± 4.17 AU, p = 0.001), with the greatest differences in tibialis anterior. Average muscle GSL also correlated to length of corticosteroid therapy (rho = 0.52, p = 0.01).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that QUS may be able to quantify skeletal muscle alterations associated with chronic corticosteroid use. Further study of this approach is warranted.

Significance: The findings of this study may provide a tool to evaluate corticosteroid myopathy.

Keywords: Brain tumor; Corticosteroids; Dexamethasone; Echointensity; Myopathy; Quantitative ultrasound.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

None of the authors has any conflict of interest to disclose.

We confirmed that we have read the Journal’s position on issues involved in ethical publication and affirm that this report is consistent with those guidelines.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Comparison of TA in 71-year-old healthy woman (A) and a 66-year-old woman exposed to steroids (B). The GSL for image A is 24, while for B was 56. The region of interest is encompassed by the blue line and the upper 1/3 of the image is the section above the red line from which the GSL is derived. GSL: gray scale level.
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Spearman correlations of cumulative dose vs. average GSL (left) and length of treatment vs. average GSL (right). Dash lines represent the confidence interval. Both show a positive correlation but only the length of treatment vs. average GSL relationship is significant (p = 0.01). GSL: gray scale level.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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