ArticleEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2026
Ultrasound estimated connective tissue proportion is lower after 6 months of restorative neurostimulation therapy: an exploratory analysis.
Article in 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. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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.
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.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo assess whether ultrasound-estimated connective tissue proportion in the human lumbar multifidus muscle is changed by restorative neurostimulation, and whether changes are associated with clinical outcomes.
methodsFifty individuals with mechanical chronic low back pain (cLBP) who were scheduled to receive a neurostimulation device to evoke contraction of the multifidus muscle via stimulation of the medial branch of the dorsal ramus at L2 were invited to participate. Connective tissue features of the multifidus and muscle cross-sectional area were extracted from transverse B-mode ultrasound images made bilaterally from L1 to S1. Measurements were made prior to implantation of the neurostimulator and at 6-months post-implantation. Self-reported back pain (numeric rating scale [NRS]), disability (Oswestry disability index [ODI]), and quality of life (EuroQol quality-of-life survey [EQ-5D-5L]) were recorded.
resultsComplete data were available for 45 participants. Errors in data collection precluded analysis of the remaining 5 participants. The relative proportion of connective tissue within the multifidus was lower by 6.0(13.5)% (unadjusted p = 0.003; Holm-adjusted p = 0.020) at L3 when the epimysium was excluded, and this remained significant following adjustment for cross-sectional area. There was no change at other lumbar levels. Improvements in back pain, disability, and quality-of-life were not linearly correlated with the amplitude of changes in muscle structure.
conclusionThe ultrasound-estimated proportion of connective tissue within the multifidus muscle at L3 was lower after 6 months of restorative neurostimulation. This is the location of the largest bulk of multifidus muscle that is innervated by the L2 nerve root stimulated by the device. The absence of linear association between the amplitude of changes in connective tissue proportion and clinical outcomes is not unexpected and larger studies will be required to investigate more complex relationships.
Indexed as
Identifiers
42911414What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.