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. 2024 Dec;33(12):4544-4554.
doi: 10.1007/s00586-024-08535-9. Epub 2024 Oct 25.

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of paraspinal muscles for assessing chronic non-specific low back pain in young adults: a prospective case-control study

Muqing Luo  1 , Yinqi Liu  1 , Weiyin Vivian Liu  2 , Mengtian Ma  1 , Yunjie Liao  3 , Suping Chen  4 , Kun Zhang  5
Affiliations

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of paraspinal muscles for assessing chronic non-specific low back pain in young adults: a prospective case-control study

Muqing Luo et al. Eur Spine J. 2024 Dec.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the application of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of paraspinal muscles in assessing the young CNLBP with unilateral symptom.

Methods: This prospective study enrolled 107 young individuals with unilateral symptomatic CNLBP (56 cases) and a normal cohort (51 cases). All subjects underwent conventional lumbar sequences, T2 mapping, and IDEAL-IQ scans at 3T. T2 values and fat fraction (FF) of bilateral multifidus (mid-levels of L2-L5 vertebrae) and erector spinae (mid-levels of L1-L4 vertebrae) were measured. CNLBP severity, Japanese Orthopedic Association (JOA) score, and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) score were recorded. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare parameter differences between painful and non-painful sides in the case group. Mann-Whitney U tests were employed to evaluate differences between the case and normal group. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify predictive factors and to establish a combined model.

Results: In the case group, erector spinae FF values (L4 level), erector spinae T2 values (L1, L2, and L4 levels), and multifidus T2 values (L4 and L5 levels) were higher on the painful side (P<0.05). Multifidus T2 values (L5 level) and FF values (L2-L5 levels) were higher in the case group compared to the normal group (P<0.05). The optimal performance in differentiating young CNLBP was the combination of L5 level multifidus T2 value with FF (AUC = 91.81%). Negative correlation existed between T2 values and FF of multifidus at L5 level and JOA scores (r=-0.41, P < 0.05), and positive correlation with VAS scores (r = 0.46, P < 0.05).

Conclusion: The combination of T2 value and FF may provide deeper insights into the pathological alterations of paraspinal muscles in young CNLBP, providing an important imaging basis for clinical judgment and preventive treatment of non-painful side in unilateral symptomatic patients.

Keywords: Fat fraction (FF); Iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least squares estimation quantification (IDEAL-IQ); Musculoskeletal (MSK); T2 mapping.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013). This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of The First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine (protocol code HN-LL-KY-2021-025-01 and date of approval 2021.09.09) and informed consent was taken from all individual participants.

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