Aims and objectives
We have already reported that the cross-sectional area (CSA) of paraspinal muscles tends to decrease with age,
that our new index (the T-back value: depth of the groove between paraspinal muscles relative to the length of the body of the muscles at the attachment to the spinous processes) is strongly correlated with the CSA of paraspinal muscles,
and that the CSAs of paraspinal and psoas muscles show a similar decreasing trend with age,
but fat infiltration of paraspinal muscles was markedly more severe than that...
Methods and materials
We considered patients with the T-back value £0 to have atrophy of paraspinal muscles.
Of a total of 704 patients who underwent MRI of the lumbar spine at our hospital during 2010,
141 patients had a T-back value of zero or less.
Of these 141 patients,
there were 120 patients,
40 men and 80 women,
were aged 60 years or older.
We defined these as T-back - group.
The control group included 120 age- and sex- matched individuals with a T-back value above zero (T-back...
Results
The T-back – group had a significantly lower BMI than the T-back + group.
Lumbar lordosis was significantly smaller in the T-back – group than in the T-back + group.
In addition,
the CSA of the paraspinal muscles was significantly smaller in the T-back – group than the T-back + group.
The %Fat of the paraspinal muscles was significantly higher in the T-back – group than the T-back + group.
When the CSA of the psoas muscles was compared across all spinal levels,
there was...
Conclusion
MRI features of the psoas muscles were similar in both groups.
References
Cruz-Jentoft AJ,
Baeyens JP,
Bauer JM,
et al.
Sarcopenia: European consensus on definition and diagnosis: Report of the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People.
Age and Ageing 2010 ; 39: 412-23.