Assessment of Calf Skeletal Muscle in Male Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients with Different Courses Using T1ρ Mapping.

CONTEXT The current clinical methods for detecting skeletal muscle complications of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are invasive and insensitive. There is an urgent need for non-invasive assessment of skeletal muscle microstructure changes during the disease progression and treatment to assist the clinical management. OBJECTIVE To investigate the T2DM caused changes in the fast-twitch tibialis anterior (TA) and slow-twitch soleus (SOL) skeletal muscles using T1ρ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) . DESIGN Cross-sectional study. (December 2014 to December 2020). SETTING Zhongda Hospital Southeast Universtiy. PARTICIPANTS 26 new-onset and 15 long-term T2DM patients were enrolled, with addition of 20 young and 13 elderly healthy volunteers as age matched controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES T1ρ relaxation times of SOL and TA muscles in different groups were measured. Parametric and non-parametric tests were used to analyze the relationship between the T1ρ values in SOL and TA muscles and the length of illness, level of fasting blood glucose, and status of homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). RESULTS T1ρ relaxation times of SOL and TA muscles of both new-onset and long-term T2DM patients are significantly higher than those of the young (P<0.01, P<0.05) and elderly healthy controls (P<0.05, P<0.01). Positive correlations were observed between the T1ρ relaxation times of the TA or SOL and the duration of T2DM (R 2=0.420, R 2=0.326), the level of fasting blood glucose (R 2=0.253, R 2=0.071) and HOMA-IR (R 2=0.232, R 2=0.414). CONCLUSION Quantitative MRI measurement of T1ρ provides a non-invasive tool to assess the T2DM induced changes in skeletal muscles of T2DM patients.