Advances in Musculoskeletal Imaging and Exercise Metabolism
A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Imaging and Theranostics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 23
Special Issue Editor
Interests: magnetic resonance spectroscopy; brain metabolism; skeletal muscle metabolism; chemical exchange
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The musculoskeletal system is essential for movement, metabolic regulation, and overall health. Advances in noninvasive imaging now allow detailed assessment of muscle structure, composition, perfusion, and bioenergetics, offering powerful tools to investigate exercise metabolism in both physiological and clinical settings. This Special Issue aims to highlight modern developments and innovative applications that advance musculoskeletal imaging and improve our understanding of muscle metabolic function.
We welcome submissions utilizing MRI, MRS, ultrasound, CT, PET/MRI, and hybrid imaging systems. Relevant topics include muscle architecture, tissue composition, lipid infiltration, microvascular function, fibrosis, energetics, metabolic flux, and exercise-induced physiological responses. Work that integrates imaging with exercise testing, biomechanics, computational modeling, or metabolic analysis—such as biopsy, blood biomarkers, metabolomics, or biochemical assays—is particularly encouraged, especially when it strengthens mechanistic insights or validates imaging-derived measurements.
Original research articles, technical developments, clinical investigations, validation studies, and comprehensive reviews are welcome. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Quantitative musculoskeletal MRI and MRS;
- Imaging of exercise-induced functional and metabolic changes;
- Muscle energetics, pH, mitochondrial activity, and perfusion;
- Integration of imaging with biomechanical or physiological assessment;
- Imaging biomarkers in aging, disease, injury, rehabilitation, and training;
- Innovations in acquisition, reconstruction, and post-processing.
Dr. Jimin Ren
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- quantitative musculoskeletal MRI/MRS
- exercise physiology
- muscle bioenergetics
- pH and metabolic flux
- oxygenation and perfusion
- rehabilitation and training
- aging and sarcopenia
- mineral metabolism and lipid infiltration
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