Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Measures of tissue morphology and mechanical properties are essential to understanding human biomechanics and motor control. When studying human systems in vivo, ultrasound imaging offers a distinct advantage over other imaging approaches (such as MRI) in that task dynamics can be studied with adequate temporal resolution to accurately compute system kinematics. Further, recent advances in ultrasound technology have resulted in the capacity to quantify tissue stiffness using shear-wave elastography, and this function has recently been incorporated into commercially available ultrasound systems. The equipment specified in this application can be applied broadly to biomechanics and physiology research and is essential to the research programs of the applicants. The particular equipment has been selected because it allows for high resolution 3D imaging at frame rates that are appropriate for kinematic analyses - making it the best tool on the market to capture dynamic motion of localized body structures. This capacity is particularly relevant to the principal applicant's research program in which she is developing and automated pixel segmentation approach to identify urogenital landmarks to be incorporated into her methodology for analysis of urogenital kinematics. Further, unlike most commercially available ultrasound systems, the equipment specified is user-friendly from a research perspective, allowing for the incorporation of a trigger pulse for data synchronization and fast and easy methods of file export directly into Matlab software applications. In Canada there are only three commercially available ultrasound systems with the capacity to perform quantitative shear-wave elastography - which has rapidly been adopted by international leaders in the field of biomechanics. Estimates of tissue stiffness using this approach are reproducible, independent of the tissue strain induced by the user, and can be seen in real-time. These features are essential for the non-invasive study of tissue properties in humans and changes in these properties associated with different motor patterns, task demands and/or age. Such capacity is essential to the individual research programs of the principal applicant for the study of pelvic floor muscle and connective tissue stiffness, and the co-applicant for the study of spinal stability and control,. It is also an integral part of their collaborative research activities and will also be used by many other investigators at the University of Ottawa. Altogether the requested ultrasound system is essential to the individual research programs of the applicants and their planned collaborative activities. The equipment will play a vital role in training highly qualified personnel, providing them with transferable skills on the cutting-edge of research on musculoskeletal imaging, biomechanics, blood flow, vascular resistance, and more.