Quantitative Ultrasound Texture Analysis to Assess the Spastic Muscles in Stroke Patients

This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of sonoelastography for determining echotexture in post-stroke patients. Moreover, the relationships of muscle echotexture features, muscle stiffness, and functional performance in spastic muscle were explored. The study population comprised 22 males with stroke. The echotexture features (entropy and energy) of the biceps brachii muscles (BBM) in both arms were extracted by local binary pattern (LBP) from ultrasound images, whereas the stiffness of BBM was assessed by shear wave velocity (SWV) in the transverse and longitudinal planes. The Fugl–Meyer assessment (FMA) was used to assess the functional performance of the upper arm. The results showed that echotexture was more inhomogeneous in the paretic BBM than in the non-paretic BBM. SWV was significantly faster in paretic BBM than in non-paretic BBM. Both echotexture features were significantly correlated with SWV in the longitudinal plane. The feature of energy was significantly negatively correlated with FMA in the longitudinal plane and was significantly positively correlated with the duration from stroke onset in the transverse plane. The echotexture extracted by LBP may be a promising approach for quantitative assessment of the spastic BBM in post-stroke patients.