Quantitative comparison of muscle thickness between young male and female subjects using ultrasonography

Architecture of skeletal muscle can change significantly during body motion, which can be observed in vivo during contraction using ultrasonography noninvasively and in real-time. Yet gender differences are paid little attention to in most current studies on muscle architecture using ultrasonography. In this study, thickness of muscle and fat is compared for young male and female subjects using automatic processing method proposed previously. Significant differences are found, between results from male and female subjects, in thickness of tibialis anterior, lateral gastrocnemius or the fat layers in 7 pre-defined posture/motion. Even after rectified by the Body Fat Index, significant differences are also found, between male and female subjects, for muscle (P<;0.05) and fat thickness (P<;0.01), and the significance is side-sensitive. Meanwhile, thickness of tibialis anterior (TA) appears to be more sensitive to gender difference.