ArticleScientific reports2022
Spinal degeneration is associated with lumbar multifidus morphology in secondary care patients with low back or leg pain.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Paraspinal muscle quality in chronic low back pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis of muscle atrophy and fat infiltration.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026Pooled it
- Paravertebral muscle degeneration-guided selective fusion strategy for degenerative lumbar scoliosis: a novel approach to minimize surgical invasiveness while optimizing clinical outcomes.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- A Proposed Diagnostic and Treatment Algorithm for the Management of Lumbar Discogenic Pain [Letter].Journal of pain research · 2026Article
- Age- and sex-related differences in lumbar disc degeneration and multifidus muscle atrophy: a retrospective MRI study of 238 patients with chronic low back pain.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2025Article
- Musculoskeletal Dimension and Brightness Reference Values in Lumbar Magnetic Resonance Imaging-A Radio-Anatomic Investigation in 80 Healthy Adult Individuals.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Association of MRI findings with paraspinal muscles fat infiltration at lower lumbar levels in patients with chronic low back pain: a multicenter prospective study.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2024Article
- Prediction of Subsequent Vertebral Fracture After Acute Osteoporotic Fractures from Clinical and Paraspinal Muscle Features.Calcified tissue international · 2024Article
- Spinal degeneration and lumbar multifidus muscle quality may independently affect clinical outcomes in patients conservatively managed for low back or leg pain.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Multifidus dysfunction and restorative neurostimulation: a scoping review.Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Associations between multifidus muscle morphology and degenerative pathologies have been implied in patients with non-specific low back pain, but it is unknown how these are influenced by pathology severity, number, or distribution. MRI measures of pure multifidus muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) were acquired from 522 patients presenting with low back and/or leg symptoms in an outpatient clinic. We explored cross-sectional associations between the presence, distribution, and/or severity of lumbar degenerative pathologies (individually and in aggregate) and muscle outcomes in multivariable analyses (beta coefficients [95% CI]). We identified associations between lower pure multifidus muscle CSA and disc degeneration (at two or more levels): - 4.51 [- 6.72; - 2.3], Modic 2 changes: - 4.06 [- 6.09; - 2.04], endplate defects: - 2.74 [- 4.58; - 0.91], facet arthrosis: - 4.02 [- 6.26; - 1.78], disc herniations: - 3.66 [- 5.8; - 1.52], and when > 5 pathologies were present: - 6.77 [- 9.76; - 3.77], with the last supporting a potential dose-response relationship between number of spinal pathologies and multifidus morphology. Our findings could hypothetically indicate that these spinal and muscle findings: (1) are part of the same degenerative process, (2) result from prior injury or other common antecedent events, or (3) have a directional relationship. Future longitudinal studies are needed to further examine the complex nature of these relationships.
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