Association of Cervical and Lumbar Paraspinal Muscle Composition Using Texture Analysis of MR-Based Proton Density Fat Fraction Maps

Abstract

In this study, the associations of cervical and lumbar paraspinal musculature based on a texture analysis of proton density fat fraction (PDFF) maps were investigated to identify gender- and anatomical location-specific structural patterns. Seventy-nine volunteers (25 men, 54 women) participated in the present study (mean age ± standard deviation: men: 43.7 ± 24.6 years; women: 37.1 ± 14.0 years). Using manual segmentations of the PDFF maps, texture analysis was performed and texture features were extracted. A significant difference in the mean PDFF between men and women was observed in the erector spinae muscle (p < 0.0001), whereas the mean PDFF did not significantly differ in the cervical musculature and the psoas muscle (p > 0.05 each). Among others, Variance(global) and Kurtosis(global) showed significantly higher values in men than in women in all included muscle groups (p < 0.001). Not only the mean PDFF values (p < 0.001) but also Variance(global) (p < 0.001), Energy (p < 0.001), Entropy (p = 0.01), Homogeneity (p < 0.001), and Correlation (p = 0.037) differed significantly between the three muscle compartments. The cervical and lumbar paraspinal musculature composition seems to be gender-specific and has anatomical location-specific structural patterns.

Editorial on Special Issue “Spine Imaging: Novel Image Acquisition Techniques and Analysis Tools”

“…Furthermore, anatomical variations in PDFF for paraspinal muscles have been explored in relation to gender and body mass index (BMI), demonstrating associations for PDFF values between segments of the erector spinae muscles at the lower thoracic and lumbar spine (T9-T11, T12-L2, and L3-L5) [ 16 ]. In an article of this Special Issue, Burian et al expanded investigations to the cervical level and explored relationships between cervical and lumbar paraspinal muscle composition by means of the PDFF, as well as texture analysis (TA) applied to PDFF maps (cervical musculature and lumbar erector spinae and psoas muscles bilaterally) [ 17 ]. Healthy participants underwent CSE-MRI at the level of the cervical and lumbar spine at 3 Tesla, followed by paraspinal muscle segmentations with muscle-resolved PDFF and texture feature extraction [ 17 ].…”

“…In an article of this Special Issue, Burian et al expanded investigations to the cervical level and explored relationships between cervical and lumbar paraspinal muscle composition by means of the PDFF, as well as texture analysis (TA) applied to PDFF maps (cervical musculature and lumbar erector spinae and psoas muscles bilaterally) [ 17 ]. Healthy participants underwent CSE-MRI at the level of the cervical and lumbar spine at 3 Tesla, followed by paraspinal muscle segmentations with muscle-resolved PDFF and texture feature extraction [ 17 ]. The authors found a statistically significant difference between males and females for the PDFF of erector spinae, but not for psoas or cervical muscles [ 17 ].…”

“…Healthy participants underwent CSE-MRI at the level of the cervical and lumbar spine at 3 Tesla, followed by paraspinal muscle segmentations with muscle-resolved PDFF and texture feature extraction [ 17 ]. The authors found a statistically significant difference between males and females for the PDFF of erector spinae, but not for psoas or cervical muscles [ 17 ]. The global texture features Kurtosis and Variance were statistically significantly higher in males than females for all segmented muscles [ 17 ].…”

“…The authors found a statistically significant difference between males and females for the PDFF of erector spinae, but not for psoas or cervical muscles [ 17 ]. The global texture features Kurtosis and Variance were statistically significantly higher in males than females for all segmented muscles [ 17 ]. Moreover, not only PDFF but also Variance, Entropy, Homogeneity, Correlation, and Energy showed statistically significant differences between the different segmented muscles [ 17 ].…”

“…The global texture features Kurtosis and Variance were statistically significantly higher in males than females for all segmented muscles [ 17 ]. Moreover, not only PDFF but also Variance, Entropy, Homogeneity, Correlation, and Energy showed statistically significant differences between the different segmented muscles [ 17 ]. Furthermore, Dieckmeyer et al explored the role of paraspinal muscle PDFF and texture features from PDFF maps as predictors of muscle strength among 26 healthy participants at 3 Tesla by correlating these measures to muscle flexion and extension strength as measured by an isokinetic dynamometer [ 18 ].…”