Muscle Ultrasound: A Novel Noninvasive Tool for Early Detection of Developing Insulin Resistance and Lower Muscle Mass in Obesity.

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the potential use of noninvasive muscle ultrasound (US) for detecting early-developing insulin resistance and lower muscle mass in adults with obesity.

Methods: Twenty subjects with obesity, without type 2 diabetes mellitus or prediabetes (mean body mass index [BMI] 34.1 ± 3.1 kg/m², mean age 33 years, 65% male), and 5 healthy lean controls (mean BMI 21.7 ± 1.1 kg/m², mean age 27 years, 40% male) underwent US examinations of their deltoid and vastus lateralis muscles. Two trained research assistants each independently analyzed the 300 US images, blinded to subject demographics and study cohorts, measuring muscle echo intensity (MEI). In the obese cohort, peripheral insulin sensitivity was evaluated using hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamps, and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry was performed to assess body composition and calculate sarcopenia indices. Statistical significance was defined as P < .05.

Results: The obese cohort demonstrated significantly higher vastus lateralis and deltoid MEI (P < .001), with increased MEI effectively identifying insulin resistance and impaired insulin sensitivity. There was excellent interobserver agreement in MEI assessments for both the deltoid (95% confidence interval [CI] of intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC]: 0.96-0.997) and vastus lateralis muscles (95% CI of ICC: 0.986-0.999). Furthermore, MEI negatively correlated with muscle mass, as indicated by sarcopenia indices (r = -.76, P < .001), and did not positively correlate with BMI or body weight.

Conclusions: Muscle US has the potential to be a simple, accurate, noninvasive, inexpensive, and radiation-free tool for detecting developing insulin resistance and lower muscle mass in at-risk individuals. This tool could have tremendous clinical impact by enabling earlier and more aggressive targeted interventions in metabolic and muscle dysfunction.