Establishment of quantitative sonographic elastography for predicting the therapeutic effect of myofascial pain

本课题旨在建立一种基于超声弹性成像技术测量咀嚼肌硬度信息的定量成像方法，以预测TMD患者肌筋膜疼痛的疗效，并探讨体模测量弹性指数的准确性及硬度计测量弹性指数与组织硬度的相关性。结果表明，弹性指数在临床应用上是足够的。使用口腔康复机器人对患者进行肌肉按摩治疗。治疗有效组治疗后咬肌厚度、硬度降低，可见明显回声带的频率增加。有效组与无效组治疗后的声像图特征存在差异。超声图像特征可能成为预测疗效的一个因素。

This project is aimed to establish the quantitative imaging methods for predicting the therapeutic effect of myofascial pain in TMD patients, based on the information of hardness of the masseter muscles using sonographic elastography.The accuracy on measuring the elasticity index using phantom, and the correlation between the elasticity index and the tissue hardness by the hardness meter were investigated. As a result, the elasticity index was sufficient on the clinical application. The muscle massage treatment was performed to the patients using an oral rehabilitation robot. In the therapeutic effective group, the thickness and hardness of the masseter muscle decreased, and the frequency of visible of the distinct echogenic bands increased after treatment. The differences in the sonographic imaging features after treatment were found between the effective and ineffective groups. Sonographic imaging features might become a factor in predicting the therapeutic efficacy.