Abstract

The lengths and pinnation angles of muscle fibers in the medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscle have recently been measured in freely moving cats [Hoffer et al., Progr. Brain Res. 80, 75-85 (1989); Muscle Afferents and Spinal Control of Movement (1992)] using an ultrasound transit-time (USTT) technique. This method assumed that the velocity of ultrasound through intact muscles was constant, independent of fiber orientation, muscle activity, load, belly shape, or fiber movement. However, the velocity of ultrasound along and across the fibers has been reported to depend on the state of muscle activation in frog muscle experiments in vitro [Hatta et al., J. Physiol. 403, 193-209 (1988)]. In the present study, the assumption of constant velocity of ultrasound in the cat MG muscle was evaluated. In acute experiments, done in situ with intact blood supply, the USTT was measured along and across cat MG muscle fibers in the passive, reflexly activated and tetanically activated states, with and without changes in muscle fiber length, for situations that reproduced the length and force ranges normally used by cats during locomotion. The velocity of ultrasound was found to be independent of the state of activation or motion of the muscle, and independent of the direction of the measurement with respect to the fiber orientation, within a measurement uncertainty less than or equal to 0.2%. These results validate the use of the USTT technique for the measurement of intramuscular dimensions in freely moving animals.