Head muscles on CT

The muscles of mastication are outlined per side on a head CT scan: masseter, temporalis, medial pterygoid, and lateral pterygoid, along with the digastric muscles and the tongue. With TotalSegmentator, studies can follow these volumes over time, relate them to age and body size, and test whether chewing muscle size reflects muscle mass elsewhere in the body. An attached PET or SPECT scan adds uptake per muscle.

Find answers to research questions like: Does masseter or temporalis size follow whole-body muscle mass? How much do these muscles change between two scans? How does uptake differ between the individual chewing muscles?

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Axial slice of head CT, outlined: Masseter right, Masseter left, Temporalis right, Temporalis left, Lateral pterygoid right, Lateral pterygoid left, Medial pterygoid right, Medial pterygoid left
Axial
Sagittal slice of head CT, outlined: Masseter right, Temporalis right, Lateral pterygoid right, Medial pterygoid right
Sagittal
Coronal slice of head CT, outlined: Masseter right, Masseter left, Temporalis right, Temporalis left, Lateral pterygoid right, Lateral pterygoid left, Medial pterygoid right, Medial pterygoid left, Tongue, Digastric right, and 1 more
Coronal

Found in this example

  • Masseter right
  • Masseter left
  • Temporalis right
  • Temporalis left
  • Lateral pterygoid right
  • Lateral pterygoid left
  • Medial pterygoid right
  • Medial pterygoid left
  • Tongue
  • Digastric right
  • Digastric left

Example scan: head CT, TotalSegmentator dataset