Tongue muscle fiber tracking during rest and tongue protrusion with oral appliances: A preliminary study with diffusion tensor imaging

An experimental in vivo study using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), which is an enhanced form of Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has depicted tongue muscle fiber deformation, especially for inferior longitudinalis (IL) and stylogossus (SG) muscle fibers, during rest and tongue protrusion with oral appliances. The study has observed two healthy volunteers without any history of oral diseases or other medical disorders. A 1.5T MR machine (Magnetom Avanto, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) performed the measurement and a head and neck coil used to obtain the DTI data. DTI measured data was acquired using a spin-echo echo planar imaging (EPI) technique with diffusion weighting, which was applied along 6 directions, a b-value of 500s/millimeter square, and 4 averages (5,18). The study advantaged in a reduced Motion artifacts due to swallowing and small motion during tongue protrusion using the oral appliance with a hole for suctioning saliva and creating a vacuum to fixate the tongue.