The architecture of the 6-month-old gastrocnemius: a 3D volumetric study

• Luke R. Bradshaw ^[1] ; Ethan M. Breinhorst ^[1] ; Anne M. R. Agur ; Seyed Ali Mirjalili
  1. [1] University of Auckland

     University of Auckland

     Nueva Zelanda

     
• Localización: European Journal of anatomy, ISSN-e 1136-4890, Vol. 24, Nº. 6, 2020, págs. 491-499
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Gastrocnemius is essential in normal gait, con-tributing to the control of ankle plantarflexion and knee flexion. However, there is a paucity of litera-ture on the architecture of the infant gastrocnemius muscle prior to the onset of weight-bearing and gait. This study investigates the three-dimensional (3D) musculoaponeurotic architecture of the gas-trocnemius in a six-month-old infant. One six-month-old cadaver was used in this study (The University of Toronto Health Sciences Research Ethics Board, #32679, and The University of Auck-land Human Participants Ethics Committee, #016164). Medial (MG) and lateral (LG) heads of the gastrocnemius were serially dissected and a Microscribe G2X™ digitizer used to digitize fiber bundles, aponeuroses and tendons. Data were then exported to Autodesk® Maya® to create 3D models. Custom software quantified architectural parameters, including fiber bundle length, penna-tion angle, physiological cross-sectional area, and muscle volume. The intramuscular architecture was assessed to determine whether musculoapo-neurotic partitions were present. Muscle volume was <1cm3 for both MG and LG. Three architec-tural partitions, proximal, middle, and distal, were identified for both MG and LG. Notably, the proxi-mal partitions of both MG and LG had mean fiber bundle length at 2.21 ± 0.41 cm and 2.22 ± 0.27 cm, significantly greater (p<0.05) than the middle and the distal partitions. The results of this study suggest that both MG and LG have architectural partitions before the commencement of gait. Fur-ther longitudinal studies with larger sample sizes are needed to confirm the presence of these archi-tectural partitions, as well as to investigate their growth across the developmental spectrum.