Lower-Extremity Muscle Cross-Sectional Area After Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract Shah PK, Stevens JE, Gregory CM, Pathare NC, Jayaraman A, Bickel SC, Bowden M, Behrman AL, Walter GA, Dudley GA, Vandenborne K. Lower-extremity muscle cross-sectional area after incomplete spinal cord injury. Objectives (1) To quantify skeletal muscle size in lower-extremity muscles of people after incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI), (2) to assess differences in muscle size between involved lower limbs, (3) to determine the impact of ambulatory status (using wheelchair for community mobility vs not using a wheelchair for community mobility) on muscle size after incomplete SCI, and (4) to determine if differential atrophy occurs among individual muscles after incomplete SCI. Design Case-control study. Setting University research setting. Participants Seventeen people with incomplete SCI and 17 age-, sex-, weight-, and height-matched noninjured controls. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Maximum cross-sectional area (CSA) of individual lower-extremity muscles (soleus, medial gastrocnemius, lateral gastrocnemius, tibialis anterior, quadriceps femoris, hamstrings) as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging. Results Overall, subjects with incomplete SCI had significantly smaller (24%–31%) average muscle CSA in affected lower-extremity muscles as compared with control subjects ( P Conclusions Our results suggest marked and differential atrophic response of the affected lower-extremity muscles that is seemingly affected by ambulatory status in people with incomplete SCI.