Abstract
Our previous study evaluated the B-mode findings of the muscle infiltrated with second generation long acting injectable antipsychotics (SG-LAIs). SG-LAIs were seen as a high-echogenicity mass with marked acoustic shadowing in the gluteus medius muscle. The aim of this study was to examine the echogenicities of the muscle with SG-LAI. This study demonstrated 3 patients with schizophrenia under treatment with risperidone (RLAI), paliperidone (PLAI) and aripiprazole (ALAI) (one case each). Quantitative diagnostic ultrasound imaging has been proposed as a method of estimating muscle quality using echogenicities. Grayscale histogram analysis of Photoshop Premiere Elements 14.0 was used to determine the muscle tissue echogenicity in a region of interest (ROI). The pre- and post-injected SG-LAI echogenicities were analyzed using a paired t-test with a significance level of 5%. Each SG-LAIs could be illustrated as high echogenic masses with acoustic shadowing. The corresponding grayscale histogram values of selected ROI in the injected muscles were significantly increased in all cases. It was considered that the diffusion states of SG-LAIs by ultrasonography were important time course evaluations providing objective evidence.
