Postdoctoral researcher CHUV UNIL CVMR

The development of segmentation methods for muscle soft tissues (see the dedicated project here) has allowed the 3D exploration of MRI images on large populations of patients with neuromuscular diseases. The transposition of our methodology into user-friendly tools has enabled us to overcome the barrier of clinical use. Therefore, in collaboration with clinicians from the neurology department of the CHU de la Timone in Marseille, several studies have been conducted on the characterization of physiological alterations occurring at the level of individual muscles in various pathologies and during physical exercises. These studies have notably confirmed the potential of quantitative MRI scores as biomarkers of neuromuscular pathologies.

The pattern of fat infiltration by qMRI of muscle degeneration in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 1A (CMT1A) was quantitatively described and correlations with clinical indices were investigated. A strong correlation was reported between scores from routine clinical examinations and fat infiltration scores extracted from dedicated sequences (PDFF). These results confirmed those of previous studies on the value of score measurements provided by qMRI for the exploration of CMT1A patients. In contrast to previous studies that only worked on a single median slice, the possibility of having the 3D segmentation of individual muscles on the cohort allowed us to identify patterns of fatty infiltration. Also, our results showed a pattern of muscle degeneration predominantly in the anterior and lateral muscle compartments of the leg with inhomogeneous involvement along the leg. This proximal-distal gradient of muscle fatty infiltration was previously suggested on the basis of semi-quantitative MRI measurements and our results confirmed the progressive degeneration of motor axons along the lower limbs, leading to muscle denervation in CMT1A. These results are of real interest for future clinical trials by demonstrating that quantification of the fat fraction at different levels of the anterior leg muscle compartment would thus be more representative of the evolution of this neuropathy.

Exploration of patients with sporadic inclusion myositis (sIBM) was also performed. The severity of fat infiltration, proximal to distal and lateral asymmetries, and correlations with clinical and functional parameters could be studied using 3D segmentation of individual muscles. Fat infiltration in individual muscles of sIBM patients has rarely been evaluated in the literature. Previous MRI observations in sIBM patients have been mainly based on visual analyses and the only quantitative measurements were reported in a study that considered only a single median slice. We showed that, in sIBM patients, the thigh muscles were more infiltrated than the leg muscles and that fat infiltration in the thighs was prominent in the distal segment and more frequently asymmetric in the proximal segment. In addition, a strong negative correlation was observed between fatty infiltration scores and functional assessment scores. These results led to the conclusion that 3D exploration of individual muscles was relevant for future studies on the natural history of this myopathy and to evaluate the impact of clinical trials on sIBM patients.

Beyond the context of neuromuscular diseases, our approach has also been applied to muscle segmentation on images of healthy volunteers. The indices provided by qMRI and quantified through the segmentations have been used for non-invasive characterization of muscle tissue in areas associated with the understanding of muscle physiology. The quantification of T2 scores in skeletal muscles has allowed the study of muscle damage following sports activities as well as the study of the spatial distribution of this damage within the muscles. The supervised segmentation of images obtained at very high magnetic field has also allowed the study of muscle architecture via the acquisition of DTI sequences.

The scope of our propagation approach of segmentation has also been extended to preclinical studies for muscle volume segmentation on lower limb images of mouse models.

Bibliography

Journal articles

Overview of MR Image Segmentation Strategies in Neuromuscular Disorders

Augustin C. Ogier, Marc-Adrien Hostin, Marc-Emmanuel Bellemare, David Bendahan

Frontiers in Neurology, Frontiers, 2021, 12, pp.625308

DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2021.625308

Quantitative assessment of sciatic nerve changes in CMT1A patients using magnetic resonance neurography

Etienne Fortanier, Augustin C. Ogier, Emilien Delmont, Marie‐noëlle Lefebvre, Patrick Viout, Maxime Guye, David Bendahan, Shahram Attarian

European Journal of Neurology, Wiley, 2020, 27, pp.1382-1389

DOI: 10.1111/ene.14303

A Quantitative muscle MRI Study of Patients with Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis

Behnaz Ansari, Emmanuelle Salort-Campana, Augustin C. Ogier, Arnaud Le Troter, Benjamin de Sainte Marie, Maxime Guye, Emilien Delmont, Aude-Marie Grapperon, Annie Verschueren, Bendahan David, Shahram Attarian

Muscle & nerve. Supplement., 2020, 61, pp.496-503

DOI: 10.1002/mus.26813

Fat fraction distribution in lower limb muscles of patients with CMT1A

Joachim Bas, Augustin C. Ogier, Arnaud Le Troter, Emilien Delmont, Benjamin Leporq, Lauriane Pini, Maxime Guye, Amandine Parlanti, Marie-Noëlle Lefebvre, David Bendahan, Shahram Attarian

Neurology, American Academy of Neurology, 2020, 94, pp.e1480-e1487

DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000009013

Spatial difference can occur between activated and damaged muscle areas following electrically‐induced isometric contractions

Alexandre Foure, Arnaud Troter, Augustin C. Ogier, Maxime Guye, Julien Gondin, David Bendahan

The Journal of Physiology, Wiley, 2019, 597, pp.4227-4236

DOI: 10.1113/JP278205

Muscle alterations induced by electrostimulation are lower at short quadriceps femoris length

Alexandre Fouré, Augustin C. Ogier, Maxime Guye, Julien Gondin, David Bendahan

European Journal of Applied Physiology, Springer Verlag, 2019, 120, pp.325 - 335

DOI: 10.1007/s00421-019-04277-5

In vivo characterization of skeletal muscle function in nebulin‐deficient mice

Charlotte Gineste, Augustin C. Ogier, Isabelle Varlet, Zaynab Hourani, Monique Bernard, Henk Granzier, David Bendahan, Julien Gondin

Muscle and Nerve, Wiley, 2019, 61, pp.416 - 424

DOI: 10.1002/mus.26798

Ultrahigh-Field Multimodal MRI Assessment of Muscle Damage

Alexandre Fouré, Lauriane Pini, Stanislas Rappacchi, Augustin C. Ogier, Jean-Camille Mattei, Mark Bydder, Maxime Guye, David Bendahan

Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Wiley-Blackwell, 2019, 49, pp.904-906

DOI: 10.1002/jmri.26222

Diffusion Properties and 3D Architecture of Human Lower Leg Muscles Assessed with Ultra-High-Field-Strength Diffusion-Tensor MR Imaging and Tractography: Reproducibility and Sensitivity to Sex Difference and Intramuscular Variability

Alexandre Fouré, Augustin C. Ogier, Arnaud Le Troter, Christophe Vilmen, Thorsten Feiweier, Maxime Guye, Julien Gondin, Pierre Besson, David Bendahan

Radiology, Radiological Society of North America, 2018, 287, pp.592-607

DOI: 10.1148/radiol.2017171330

L-tyrosine supplementation does not ameliorate skeletal muscle dysfunction in zebrafish and mouse models of dominant skeletal muscle α-actin nemaline myopathy

Adriana Messineo, Charlotte Gineste, Tamar Sztal, Elyshia Mcnamara, Christophe Vilmen, Augustin C. Ogier, Dorothee Hahne, David Bendahan, Nigel Laing, Robert Bryson-Richardson, Julien Gondin, Kristen Nowak

Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, 2018, 8

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-29437-z

Conference
communications

Muscular fat infiltration in FSHD starts with a “fat burst” near the distal tendon and advances towards the proximal tendon

Linda Heskamp, Augustin C. Ogier, David Bendahan, Arend Heerschap

International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), Aug 2020, Online, United States

Muscular fat infiltration in FSHD starts with a ‘‘fat burst’’ near the distal tendon and advances towards the proximal tendon

Linda Heskamp, Augustin C. Ogier, David Bendahan, Arend Heerschap

The 37th Annual Scientific Meeting of European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB), Sep 2020, Online, Austria

Intramuscular Pattern of Fat Infiltration Measured by MRI to Identify Disease Initiation in FSHD

Linda Heskamp, Augustin C. Ogier, Arnaud Le Troter, David Bendahan, Arend Heerschap

MYO-MRI, Imaging in Neuromuscular Disease, Nov 2019, Berlin, Germany

Intramuscular pattern of fat infiltration measured by MRI to identify disease initiation in FSHD

Linda Heskamp, Augustin C. Ogier, Arnaud Le Troter, David Bendahan, Arend Heerschap

FSH Society International Research Congress, Jun 2019, Marseille, France

Neurographie IRM quantitative de patients atteints d’une neuropathie de Charcot-Marie-Tooth de type 1A

Etienne Fortanier, Augustin C. Ogier, Marie-Noëlle Lefebvre, Émilien Delmont, David Bendahan, Shahram Attarian

17es Journées de la Société Française de Myologie (JSFM), Nov 2019, Marseille, France

Fat fraction distribution in lower limb muscles of CMT1A patients: a quantitative MRI study

Joachim Bas, Augustin C. Ogier, Arnaud Le Troter, Émilien Delmont, Benjamin Leporq, Lauriane Pini, Maxime Guye, Amandine Parlanti, Marie-Noëlle Lefebvre, David Bendahan, Shahram Attarian

MYO-MRI, Imaging in Neuromuscular Disease, Nov 2019, Berlin, Germany

Areas of muscle tissue alteration can differ from activated regions during electrically-induced isometric contractions

Alexandre Fouré, Arnaud Le Troter, Augustin C. Ogier, David Bendahan

MYO-MRI, Imaging in Neuromuscular Disease, Nov 2019, Berlin, Germany

Intramuscular variability and sex difference in diffusion properties and 3D architecture of human lower leg muscles assessed with ultra-high-field diffusion tensor imaging and tractography

Alexandre Fouré, Augustin C. Ogier, Arnaud Le Troter, Christophe Vilmen, Thorsten Feiweier, Maxime Guye, Julien Gondin, Pierre Besson, David Bendahan

International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), Jun 2018, Paris, France

Caractérisation de la microarchitecture des muscles de la jambe par IRM à très haut champs magnétique (7T) : Etude de faisabilité et perspectives pour une évaluation précise et non invasive de l’architecture musculaire en 3D

Alexandre Fouré, Pierre Besson, Arnaud Le Troter, Augustin C. Ogier, Christophe Vilmen, Julien Gondin, Maxime Guye, David Bendahan

3ème Congrès de la Société Française de Résonance Magnétique en Biologie et Médecine (SFRMBM), Mar 2017, Bordeaux, France

3D architecture of human lower leg muscles assessed with ultra-high-field diffusion tensor imaging and tractography: sensitivity to sex difference and intramuscular variability

Alexandre Fouré, Augustin C. Ogier, Arnaud Le Troter, Thorsten Feiweier, Christophe Vilmen, Maxime Guye, Julien Gondin, Pierre Besson, David Bendahan

MYO-MRI, Imaging in Neuromuscular Disease, Nov 2017, Berlin, Germany