Abstract: Objective We propose a cross-correlation method for automatic extraction of the pennation angle (PA) of the
gastrocnemius (GM) muscle from ultrasound radiofrequency (RF) signals. Methods The ultrasound RF signals of the GM
muscles in tension condition from normal subjects and the simulated ultrasound signals were collected. After the starting point
of tracking, a fascicle was selected in the reconstructed GM ultrasound image from the RF signals, and the fascicle and deep
aponeurosis could be automatically tracked using the cross-correlation algorithm. The lines of the fascicle and deep
aponeurosis were then drawn and the PA was calculated. The reproducibility of the proposed method and its consistency with
the manual measurement method were tested. Results The angles of the simulated fascicles were precisely extracted
automatically. The difference between the experimental measurement and the theoretical values was less than 1° . The PA
measured automatically and manually was 20.48°±0.47° and 21.49°±1.79°, respectively. The coefficient of variation (CV) of the
two methods was less than 3% and the root-mean square error (RMSE) was less than 1°. Bland-Altman plot showed a good
agreement between the proposed automatic method and the manual method. Conclusion The proposed cross-correlation
automatic measurement method can detect the orientation of the fascicle and deep aponeurosis and measure the PA based on
ultrasound RF signals with serious speckle noise.