Large-scale analysis of subregional thigh muscle volumes on Dixon MRI and potential clinical utility

Motivation: Asymmetrical muscle atrophy and hypertrophy are known to occur in muscular atrophy. Musclar subtle changes are important indicators for early detection and tracking changes longitudinally with intervention. Goal(s): To automatically segment thigh muscle subregions and assess their muscular volume and trends with ageing on large-scale data. Approach: We trained nnU-Net for thigh muscle segmentation, and applied on the UK-Biobank data to assess the association between muscular volume and aging and diseases. Results: Thigh musclar volume decreases as we are aging, and is significantly inversely associated with type-2 diabetes, hyptertebnsion and dementia. Impact: Lower volume of the anterior thigh muscle was found in type-2 diabetes, hypertension and dementia patients. Lower volumes of the medial and posterior thigh muscle were found in dementia patients.