Purpose: Inflammatory myopathies represent a special group of pathology. Establishing the correct diagnosis in the early phase and a better follow-up are the main objective for improving the life quality of these patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the real time elastography in assessment of the elasticity of skeletal muscle in myositis.
Methods and Materials: The study included 74 patients (469 muscles) with different types of inflammatory myopathies examined using Hitachi 8500 EUB equipment with a 6.5-13 MHz transducer and software for elastography (ImageProcessing programm). The images were analyzed in conjunction with clinical and biochemical data. Using dedicated software for color information, the average values for color intensity, hue and dispersion were calculated on elastographic images.
Results: The mean age of the investigated subject was of 50.92 ±11.59 years old. Most patients showed more pronounced changes in the thigh (83.8%), with no statistically significant difference between left and right side. The analysis applied to characterize the relationship between visually assessed muscle elasticity and color parameters calculated by the dedicated software showed significant concordances (p=2.52∙10-6 for average red, p=4.87∙10-4 for average green, p=1.27∙10-25 for average blue, p=2.73∙10-52 average hue, p=2.03∙10-21 dispersion red, p=3.42∙10-7 dispersion blue, p=9.54∙10-6 dispersion intensity, and p=0.003 dispersion hue). Final diagnosis proved significantly correlated with muscle elasticity (p = 1.52•10-7).
Conclusions: Distribution of descriptive statistical parameters associated with colors on the sonoelastographical image showed different values, which could be found useful in evaluation of patients with inflammatory myopathies.
