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Erschienen in: Skeletal Radiology 7/2018

23.02.2018 | Scientific Article

Is a single-level measurement of paraspinal muscle fat infiltration and cross-sectional area representative of the entire lumbar spine?

verfasst von: Julio Urrutia, Pablo Besa, Daniel Lobos, Marcelo Andia, Cristobal Arrieta, Sergio Uribe

Erschienen in: Skeletal Radiology | Ausgabe 7/2018

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Abstract

Purpose

Lumbar paraspinal muscle morphology has recently been evaluated in several studies with conflicting results. Several studies have performed single-slice evaluations of paraspinal muscle morphology, whereas other studies have done a multi-level assessment; this methodological difference might explain the observed different results. Our study evaluated if a single-slice axial measurement is representative of the entire lumbar musculature.

Methods

We included 80 adult patients who were consecutively evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for spinal symptoms. Using T2-weighted axial images, we measured the fat signal fractions (FSF) and cross-sectional area (CSA) of the erector spinae and multifidus at the five levels of the lumbar spine (from L1-L2 to L5-S1). We used the ANOVA test for repeated measurements (with Bonferroni correction) to compare the FSF and CSA among the levels.

Results

Erector spinae showed an increasing FSF from L1-L2 to L5-S1; all erector spinae FSF comparisons among the different levels were significantly different. Multifidus FSF also increased caudally below L2-L3, although significant differences were observed only with two or more levels of distance. The CSA of the erector spinae showed a caudal decrease (L4-L5 and L5-S1 being significantly smaller than all the levels above). The CSA of the multifidus showed that all levels exhibited a significantly different area compared to their adjacent level (except L5-S1 compared to L4-L5).

Conclusions

No single-level FSF or CSA is representative of the whole lumbar spine. A standardized multi-level evaluation of the paraspinal musculature should be used in future research.
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Metadaten
Titel
Is a single-level measurement of paraspinal muscle fat infiltration and cross-sectional area representative of the entire lumbar spine?
verfasst von
Julio Urrutia
Pablo Besa
Daniel Lobos
Marcelo Andia
Cristobal Arrieta
Sergio Uribe
Publikationsdatum
23.02.2018
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erschienen in
Skeletal Radiology / Ausgabe 7/2018
Print ISSN: 0364-2348
Elektronische ISSN: 1432-2161
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-018-2902-z

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