Automatic Detection of Contracting Muscle Regions via the Deformation Field of Transverse Ultrasound Images: A Feasibility Study

Accurate identification of contracting muscles can help us to understand the muscle function in both physiological and pathological conditions. Conventional electromyography (EMG) have limited access to deep muscles, crosstalk, or instability in the recordings. Accordingly, a novel framework was developed to detect contracting muscle regions based on the deformation field of transverse ultrasound images. We first estimated the muscle movements in a stepwise calculation, to derive the deformation field. We then calculated the divergence of the deformation field to locate the expanding or shrinking regions during muscle contractions. Two preliminary experiments were performed to evaluate the feasibility of the developed algorithm. Using concurrent intramuscular EMG recordings, Experiment I verified that the divergence map can capture the activity of superficial and deep muscles, when muscles were activated voluntarily or through electrical stimulation. Experiment II verified that the divergence map can only capture contracting muscles but not muscle shortening during passive movements. The results demonstrated that the divergence can individually capture the activity of muscles at different depths, and was not sensitive to muscle shortening during passive movements. The proposed framework can automatically detect the regions of contracting muscle, and could potentially serve as a tool to assess the functions of a group of muscles concurrently.