The Effect of Low Back Pain on Paraspinal Muscle Volumes in Adolescents

The medical records of 229 patients who underwent MRI due to low back pain persisting for a minimum of twelve weeks between January 2018 and January 2020 were evaluated retrospectively. Twenty-four patients were excluded due to the presence of spondylolysis-listhesis, spinal alignment disorders including scoliosis and kyphosis, inflammatory diseases, or histories of spinal surgery and multilevel disc hernia. Two hundred five patients were finally enrolled. Age, gender, weight, and height were recorded, and BMI was calculated as weight/(height)². Participants were divided into two groups - with LDH (Group A) and without LDH (Group B). Right- and left-side PS, MF, and ES muscle volumes at intervertebral disc levels L4-L5 and L5-S1 were measured on Axial T2-weighted fast spin-echo sequences. All cross-sectional images at both levels (L4-5 and L5-S1) were generated by means of multiplanar reformat images. The muscles were identified by means of manual contouring at both disc levels. The fat components were then eliminated by application of the threshold technique, based on visual differences in pixel signal intensities. Volume measurement from cross-sectional images was based on the use of an automatic volume calculation tool.