Reliability of Rehabilitative Ultrasound Imaging for the Quadriceps Muscle and Sarcopenia in Poststroke Patients

Poststroke patients often suffer from muscle atrophy in quadriceps muscle. Quadriceps muscle is essential for independent standing or ambulation after stroke. Quadriceps muscle consists of four different muscles: rectus femoris, vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis and medialis. The present study search for reliability for rectus femoris and vastus intermedius muscle thickness and cross-sectional area using rehabilitative ultrasound imagining. Longitudinal and transverse ultrasound imagining of the muscle thickness will be performed on both rectus femoris and vastus intermedius muscles for both extremities. The procedures will be repeated by two experts at two separate times (7-10 days). For sarcopenia measurement grip strength and DEXA measurements of the patients will be calculated. Totally 68 patients will be included in the study.