The Measurement of Stiffness for Major Muscles with Shear Wave Elastography and Myoton: A Quantitative Analysis Study

The present study was performed to assess the relationship between hand-held myotonometer MyotonPRO and shear wave elastography (SWE) measurements of lower limb muscle stiffness during resting and active voluntary contraction. Forty healthy young adults, (20 males and 20 females) participated in the study. The stiffness of each subject’s rectus femoris (RF), biceps femoris (BF), tibialis anterior (TA), and medial gastrocnemius (MG) was measured repeatedly by MyotonPRO and SWE. Moderate to strong correlations between the two methods’ measurements were found for both resting and active voluntary contraction. (r = 0.416–0.669, p < 0.05; r = 0.398–0.594, p < 0.05, respectively). Muscle stiffness at rest was significantly lower compared contraction in all four muscles measured by both methods (p < 0.05). Intra-rater reliabilities were generally lower when measurements were taken during contraction. Additionally, when compared by gender, muscle stiffness measured by MyotonPRO was significantly higher at rest in men compared to women, except for the TA. However, a significant difference was found in TA muscle stiffness by gender when measured with SWE. When muscles were contracted, all muscles showed significantly higher stiffness in men compared to women. There were moderate to good correlations in muscle stiffness between measurements of SWE and MyotonPRO at rest and during active voluntary contraction. Additionally, both instruments showed good intra-rater reliability.