Authors: Małgorzata Matyja, Justyna Ćwięląg, Aleksandra Sowa, Katarzyna Szewczyk

Published online:  10 December 2020

Abstract: The study presents the results of sonographic evaluation of the lateral abdominal muscles (LAM) in 36 children aged 9-13 with normal body posture. B-scanner MINDRAY DP-6600 Digital Ultrasonic Diagnostic Imaging System was used in the examination. The measurement was performed in five positions: resting lying, corrected lying, corrected sitting, resting standing, and corrected standing. The researchers were interested in answering questions concerning the thickness of individual lateral abdominal muscles, differences between boys and girls, differences between resting and corrected positions, and determination of the position in which LAM have the highest values.

Regardless of body position, the lowest thickness was found for the TrA muscle, whereas the highest one was recorded for OI muscle. In boys, most of the lateral abdominal muscles were thicker than in girls. The greatest thickness of all muscles was reported in the corrected sitting position. There was no uniform tendency in LAM thickness changes in the resting and corrected positions. In the corrected lying position, the muscles had greater thickness than in the standing resting position. In the corrected standing position, TrA muscle increased its thickness compared to the resting standing position, whereas the thickness of OI and OE muscles decreased. The literature review indicated that researchers who examined LAM also have not obtained homogeneous results in terms of an increase or decrease in the thickness of these muscles, either in different positions or during different activities.