Four functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques for skeletal muscle exploration, a systematic review

Highlights: • Functional imaging of skeletal muscle is feasible with BOLD, ASL, IVIM or DCE. • There are easily implementable in a common clinical environment. • Quantitative results are still heterogeneous in healthy subjects. • All techniques show usefulness in assessment of different pathologies. The study of muscle health has become more relevant lately, due to global aging and a higher incidence of musculoskeletal pathologies. Current exploration techniques, such as electromyography, do not provide accurate spatial information.