Thomas G. Sandercock

Ultrasound shear wave elastography may be an inexpensive way to measure muscle stress in passive muscle. Here, using a cat model we directly measured shear wave velocity (SWV), muscle stress, and muscle stiffness. Our results show that SWV depends primarily on the stress in a passively stretched muscle. In contrast, the SWV in active muscle is higher than would be predicted by considering only stress, presumably due to activation-dependent changes in muscle stiffness.