Abstract #0273

Using DTI to Assess the Effect of Obesity & Physical Activity on Muscle Quality in Elderly Women

Armen Alex Gharibans¹, Danchin Daniel Chen¹, Curtis Laurence Johnson¹, Dolores D. Guest², Christie Ward³, Bhibha Das², Ellen M. Evans³, John G. Georgiadis¹

¹Mechanical Science & Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; ²Department of Kinesiology & Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; ³Department of Kinesiology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

Seeking to assess skeletal muscle quality, the primary and secondary eigenvector tracts were reconstructed from DTI in the vastus medialis of elderly women (n=41) blocked on adiposity (obese vs. lean), with the lean group (n = 17) further blocked on physical fitness (sedentary vs. physically active). Three parameters related to the asymmetry of the diffusion tensor in the direction perpendicular to the muscle fiber are used as structural metrics of muscle quality. Statistical analysis of the cross-sectional study outcome shows that physical activity and obesity influence muscle quality such that: slender/active group > slender/sedentary group > obese group.