Changes in T2-weighted MRI of supinator muscle, pronator teres muscle, and extensor indicis muscle with manual muscle testing.
Kazuya Yoshida, Sumikazu Akiyama, Masayoshi Takamori and 2 others
PMID 28356621WHAT IT FOUND
After manual muscle testing, T2-weighted MRI signal increased in the supinator, pronator teres, and extensor indicis muscles of three healthy volunteers, with no reported changes in other muscles.
Key findings
01T2-weighted MRI signal increased after manual muscle testing exercise in the supinator, pronator teres, and extensor indicis muscles.
02No significant changes were shown in image intensities for the rest of the muscles.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
Only three healthy male volunteers were studied, so the findings cannot be generalized to patients with cerebrovascular, cardiovascular, respiratory, or musculoskeletal disease. The comparison was resting MRI and after-exercise MRI in the same volunteers, with no patient outcome, control group, or clinical strength grading measured. Only the left forearm and three specific muscles were examined. The authors suggest MRI could be useful for training physical therapists, but that use was not tested in this paper.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that manual muscle testing improves patient outcomes or that MRI should be used in routine physical therapy assessment. The study measured MRI signal after exercise in three healthy volunteers, and it did not test training effect or patient care.