A Pilot MRI Study of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment of Acute Low Back Pain

This is a pilot project intended to determine the feasibility of detecting soft tissue changes in response to osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). MRIs of the lumbar and pelvic regions of low back pain (LBP) patients will be taken once before and at two different time points after OMT. Images obtained will be quantitatively analyzed for changes in the volumes of back muscles and for changes (T2 signals) indicative of activity levels or pathological conditions. Electromyography (EMG) will be used as an independent measure of back muscle activity for comparison with MRI results.