ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2017 December;176(12):665-70

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.17.03447-7

Copyright © 2017 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Site-difference in the relationships between body mass and muscle volume in lower limb muscles

Toshihiro IKEBUKURO ¹, Masahiro KOUNO ¹, Tomonobu ISHIGAKI ¹, Hideaki YATA ², Keitaro KUBO ¹ ✉

¹ Department of Life Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan; ² Department of Human and Environmental Well-Being, Wako University, Machida, Tokyo, Japan

BACKGROUND: It is known that the muscle size (thickness, cross-sectional area, volume) was significantly correlated to the body mass. If a muscle greatly plays a role as an anti-gravity muscle, the size of that muscle (e.g., muscle volume) may be highly correlated to body mass. In the present study, we compared the relationships between the body mass and muscle volume among lower limbs (knee extensors, knee flexors, adductors, plantar flexors, and dorsi flexors) and synergistic muscles.
METHODS: Twenty-four healthy males volunteered for this investigation. From the magnetic resonance images, the volumes of these muscle groups and each synergistic muscle were determined.
RESULTS: For all muscle groups, the muscle volumes were highly correlated to the body mass. For knee extensors, the correlation coefficient between them for rectus femoris was lower than that for the other three muscles. For knee flexors, the muscle volumes of biceps femoris long head and semimembranosus were significantly correlated to the body mass, whereas these relations for biceps femoris short head and semitendinosus were not significant.
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggested that there was no difference in the contribution for an anti-gravity muscle among the measured muscle groups. Furthermore, the degree of contribution for an anti-gravity muscle was relatively lower for rectus femoris, biceps femoris short head, and semitendinosus.

KEY WORDS: Cross-sectional anatomy - Muscle strength - Magnetic resonance imaging