Non-Invasive Determination of Muscle Tissue Quality and Intramuscular Fat

Abstract

Provided is a non-invasive system and method of determining muscle tissue quality based on image processing. The non-invasive system and method includes determining muscle intramuscular fat content. The methods includes receiving at least one ultrasound scan image of at least a portion of a skin layer as disposed above one or more additional tissue layers, the skin layer defining a horizontal axis and the image provided by a plurality of pixels. The method continues by blurring the pixels of the image and thresholding the pixels of the image to provide an image having a plurality of structural elements of different sizes and gray scale. The method continues with morphing the structural elements of the image to remove small structural elements and connect large structural elements. With this resulting image, the method distinguishes muscle tissue from remaining elements. A ratio of black to white elements is evaluated to determine the muscle tissue quality or intramuscular fat content. Associated apparatuses and computer program products are also disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A non-invasive method of determining human muscle tissue quality, comprising:
 removing, from an initial image, first structural elements having a first size below a threshold, thereby producing a first processed image;   connecting second structural elements having a second size above the threshold in the first processed image to produce a second processed image; and   determining the tissue quality of a human muscle by evaluating a ratio of black to white pixels in the second processed image; wherein:   the second processed image comprises:
 a topmost band of contiguous white pixels extending across the second processed image; 
 a middle band of contiguous black pixels extending across the second processed image and adjacent the topmost band of contiguous white pixels; and 
 a bottom band of contiguous white pixels extending across the second processed image and adjacent the middle band of contiguous black pixels; and 
   the middle band in the second processed image corresponds to the human muscle.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the initial image is a received image. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the received image includes gray pixels. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the initial image is an ultrasound image. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising generating the ultrasound image using an ultrasound device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising evaluating the human muscle tissue quality over a period of time. 
     
     
         7 . A non-invasive method of determining human muscle tissue quality, comprising:
 removing white holes from black elements in a binary image to produce a first processed image;   removing black holes from white elements in the first processed image to produce a second processed image;   evaluating a ratio of black pixels within the black elements to white pixels within the white elements; and   determining the human muscle tissue quality; wherein:
 the second processed image comprises a continuous black band of contiguous black pixels extending across the second processed image between upper and lower continuous white boundaries formed of contiguous white pixels; and 
 muscle tissue corresponds to a middle black band between the upper and lower continuous white boundaries. 
   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising producing the binary image from an ultrasound scan image. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising vertically cropping one side of the ultrasound scan image. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising generating the ultrasound scan image using an ultrasound device. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the first processed image is produced using morphing. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the human muscle tissue quality is a numeric value. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the human muscle tissue quality is one of fit or unfit. 
     
     
         14 . A non-invasive method of determining intramuscular fat content of a muscle, comprising:
 producing a processed image having a band of contiguous black pixels positioned between two bands of contiguous white pixels by removing small structural elements in a binary image and connecting large structural elements in the binary image;   distinguishing muscle tissue from fat tissue by identifying:
 the muscle tissue as a first element composed of the band of contiguous black pixels having a first range of values and extending across an entirety of the processed image; and 
 the fat tissue as a second element composed of the two bands of contiguous white pixels having a second range of values, each of the two bands of contiguous white pixels extending across the entirety of the processed image; and 
   determining the intramuscular fat content of the muscle tissue by evaluating a ratio of black to white pixels.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising evaluating the intramuscular fat content over a period of time. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising comparing the intramuscular fat content to a goal. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the goal is based on a historic quality. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the goal is based on other subjects. 
     
     
         19 . A non-invasive method of determining a muscle tissue quality, comprising:
 removing structural elements having a size below a threshold in a binary image to produce a first processed image;   connecting large structural elements in the first processed image to produce a second processed image;   determining a percent intramuscular fat;   determining the muscle tissue quality via a routine operation to evaluate a ratio of black to white pixels; and   outputting one or more of the muscle tissue quality or the percent intramuscular fat; wherein:   the second processed image comprises:   an upper band of contiguous white pixels extending across an entirety of the second processed image;   a middle band of contiguous black pixels adjacent the upper band and extending across the entirety of the second processed image; and   a bottom band of contiguous white pixels adjacent the middle band of contiguous black pixels and extending across the entirety of the second processed image;   the upper, middle, and bottom bands extending continuously from a first side of the second processed image to a second side of the second processed image; and   muscle tissue corresponding to the middle band of contiguous black pixels in the second processed image.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the second processed image is produced using morphing.