Title:  Ultrasound Shear Wave Elasticity Imaging for Assessing Diaphragm Function in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Committee: 

Dr. Emelianov, Advisor 

Dr. Lindsey, Chair

Dr. Garcia

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to develop the ultrasound shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI) system for assessing diaphragmatic function in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). SWEI is one of widely used acoustic radiation force based ultrasonic shear wave elastography (SWE) methods that can make a two-dimensional quantitative map of the tissue’s stiffness. SWE has been showing promising results in various musculoskeletal applications including diaphragm for both research and clinical settings, however, diaphragm muscle of DMD patients hasn’t been explored yet. This work provides an overview and challenges of the state-of-the-art of diaphragm function evaluating techniques and proposes ultrasound SWEI as a sensitive measure of diaphragm muscle functionality in DMD. Our preliminary work has shown that SWEI could provide elastic properties of the diaphragm in a mouse model for DMD research, which leads us to suggest it as a reliable tool for noninvasive assessment of the diaphragm function. The proposed research (1) to validate the ultrasound SWEI system for assessing diaphragm function and (2) to evaluate the time course of changes in mice diaphragm can enrich preclinical research for DMD, and thus, (3) its application to DMD patients can remedy shortcomings of conventional methods in clinical practice by providing a more sensitive and precise measure.