• Maximilian Muellner, Henryk Haffer, Manuel Moser, Krizia Amoroso, Zhaorui Wang, Artine Arzani, Ek T Tan, Erika Chiapparelli, Yusuke Dodo, Jennifer Shue, Matthias Pumberger, Andrew A Sama, Frank P Cammisa, Federico P Girardi, and Alexander P Hughes.
• Spine Care Institute, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Cornell Medicine, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA.
• Eur Spine J. 2023 Sep 1; 32 (9): 329032993290-3299.

PurposeThis study aimed to investigate the changes of the posterior paraspinal muscles (PPM) and psoas muscle in patients with low back pain (LBP) over time.MethodsPatients with LBP who had a repeat lumbar MRI with a minimum of 3-years apart at a tertiary referral center were analyzed. MRI-based quantitative assessments of the PPM and the psoas muscle were conducted for the baseline and follow-up MRI. The cross sectional area (CSA), the functional cross sectional area (fCSA) and the fat area (FAT) were calculated using a dedicated software program. The fatty infiltration (FI,%) of the regions of interest was calculated. Differences between the 1st and 2nd MRI were calculated for all assessed muscular parameters.ResultsA total of 353 patients (54.4%female) with a median age of 60.1 years and BMI of 25.8 kg/m2 at baseline were analyzed. The mean time between the 1st and 2nd MRI was 3.6 years. The fCSAPPM declined in both sexes significantly from the 1st to the 2nd MRI, whereas the FATPPM increased. In line with this result, the FIPPM increased in both males (29.9%) and females (19.4%). Females had a higher FIPPM and FIPsoas than males in both MRIs. In females, no significant changes were found for the psoas muscle. The CSAPsoas and fCSAPsoas in males were significantly smaller in the 2nd MRI. With increasing age, a significant trend in a decrease in ∆FIPPM was observed for both sexes.ConclusionThe study revealed significant quantitatively muscular changes in males and females, especially in the posterior paraspinal muscles in only three years' time.© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

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