Noninvasive viscoelasticity imaging, or “dynamic elastography”, methods have recently been developed to objectively quantify the local viscoelastic properties of soft tissues by measuring the local propagation velocity of mechanical shear vibrations (e.g. faster velocity indicates stiffer material). But, the existing elastography technologies require a potentially uncomfortable external mechanical stimulation (e.g. vibrations probe) to induce muscle vibrations; and sophisticated and expensive imaging equipments (such as MRI and ultrafast ultrasound elastography), involving complex signal processing, to record and analyze these muscle vibrations. The work in this dissertation lays the foundation for the development of a low cost, passive, non-invasive elastography by analyzing and processing Surface Mechanomyograms (S-MMGs) measured with one dimensional accelerometers from the biceps brachii muscle. Aim 1 of this dissertation focused on the 3-dimensional aspect of vibrations measured by accelerometers on the skin surface above the biceps brachii. While Aim 2 focused on using one-dimensional accelerometers to determine the propagation direction of the propagating S-MMG waves. Using this newly developed knowledge on S-MMG Aim 3 was accomplished, a method to analyze the propagating wave and develop a metric that can track the changes in the muscle was developed, namely, the coherence length. The coherence length was found to significantly increase with increased contraction levels for all seven of the subjects. Overall the results of this study show that the propagation features of S-MMG vibrations reflect the architecture and contraction level of the biceps brachii muscle. Hence S-MMG could potentially be used for monitoring physiological changes of skeletal muscles.

M. Tech. / OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to explore whether dry needle therapy delivered to latent myofascial trigger points of the biceps brachii muscle had an immediate effect on muscle activity and strength . DESIGN: One hundred participants with latent myofascial trigger points of the biceps brachii muscle and who were suitable for the study were drawn from the community. They were al located in to either a controlor treatment group so that each group contained fifty participants . The control and treatment group were divided in such a way to ensure that the two groups were comparable with one another un terms of age and gender. The International Physical Activity Questionnaire was completed by each participant to ensure that the two groups were also comparable with one another in terms of the total amount of physical activity performed per week. The results of this study were statistically analysed by STATKON at the University of Johannesburg.

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The purpose of this experiment was to investigate skeletal muscle blood flow and glucose uptake in m. biceps (BF) and m. quadriceps femoris (QF) 1) during recovery from high intensity cycle exercise, and 2) while wearing a compression short applying ~37 mmHg to the thigh muscles. Blood flow and glucose uptake were measured in the compressed and non-compressed leg of 6 healthy men by using positron emission tomography. At baseline blood flow in QF (P = 0.79) and BF (P = 0.90) did not differ between the compressed and the non-compressed leg. During recovery muscle blood flow was higher compared to baseline in both compressed (P&lt;0.01) and non-compressed QF (P&lt;0.001) but not in compressed (P = 0.41) and non-compressed BF (P = 0.05; effect size = 2.74). During recovery blood flow was lower in compressed QF (P&lt;0.01) but not in BF (P = 0.26) compared to the non-compressed muscles. During baseline and recovery no differences in blood flow were detected between the superficial and deep parts of QF in both, compressed (baseline P = 0.79; recovery P = 0.68) and non-compressed leg (baseline P = 0.64; recovery P = 0.06). During recovery glucose uptake was higher in QF compared to BF in both conditions (P&lt;0.01) with no difference between the compressed and non-compressed thigh. Glucose uptake was higher in the deep compared to the superficial parts of QF (compression leg P = 0.02). These results demonstrate that wearing compression shorts with ~37 mmHg of external pressure reduces blood flow both in the deep and superficial regions of muscle tissue during recovery from high intensity exercise but does not affect glucose uptake in BF and QF. © 2013 Sperlich et al. / <p>:doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0060923</p>