Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38671766›Full record

ArticleBioengineering (Basel, Switzerland)2024

Validation and Estimation of Obesity-Induced Intervertebral Disc Degeneration through Subject-Specific Finite Element Modelling of Functional Spinal Units.

Nitesh Kumar Singh, Nishant K Singh, Rati Verma, Ashish D Diwan

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
4.7field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Association between weight-adjusted waist index and the incidence of low back pain among middle-aged and older adults: a nationwide prospective cohort study in China.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 · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Letter to the Editor concerning "One-year body mass index change and subsequent risk of lumbar disc herniation: a population-based cohort study" by S. Masuda, et al. (Eur Spine J; doi:10.1007/s00586-025-09508-2).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 · 2025
    Article
  4. Review
  5. Review
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  7. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Nitesh Kumar SinghComputational Biomechanics Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur 492010, India.ORCID 0000-0002-4394-7363
Nishant K SinghComputational Biomechanics Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Raipur 492010, India.ORCID 0000-0003-3368-1511
Rati VermaBiomechanics Lab, School of Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi 221005, India.
Ashish D DiwanSpine Labs & Spine Service, St George & Sutherland Campus, Clinical School of Faculty of Health & Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2502, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-1037-8421
National Institute of Technology Raipur · INSutherland Hospital · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

(1) Background: Intervertebral disc degeneration has been linked to obesity; its potential mechanical effects on the intervertebral disc remain unknown. This study aimed to develop and validate a patient-specific model of L3-L4 vertebrae and then use the model to estimate the impact of increasing body weight on disc degeneration. (2) Methods: A three-dimensional model of the functional spinal unit of L3-L4 vertebrae and its components were developed and validated. Validation was achieved by comparing the range of motions (RoM) and intradiscal pressures with the previous literature. Subsequently, the validated model was loaded according to the body mass index and estimated stress, deformation, and RoM to assess disc degeneration. (3) Results: During validation, L3-L4 RoM and intradiscal pressures: flexion 5.17° and 1.04 MPa, extension 1.54° and 0.22 MPa, lateral bending 3.36° and 0.54 MPa, axial rotation 1.14° and 0.52 MPa, respectively. When investigating the impact of weight on disc degeneration, escalating from normal weight to obesity reveals an increased RoM, by 3.44% during flexion, 22.7% during extension, 29.71% during lateral bending, and 33.2% during axial rotation, respectively. Also, stress and disc deformation elevated with increasing weight across all RoM. (4) Conclusions: The predicted mechanical responses of the developed model closely matched the validation dataset. The validated model predicts disc degeneration under increased weight and could lay the foundation for future recommendations aimed at identifying predictors of lower back pain due to disc degeneration.

Indexed as

body mass indexdegenerationfinite element analysisintervertebral disclumbar spineobesity

Identifiers

PMID38671766
PMCPMC11048157
OpenAlexW4393352579

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.