الفهرس 
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SAGITTAL CURVATURE AND EXTENSOR MUSCLE VOLUME IN LUMBOSACRAL REGION: A MORPHOLOGICAL AND RADIOLOGICAL STUDY IN EGYPTIANOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 16 |  |  |
| | | from | 16 | | |
Abstract
The vertebral column is a complex anatomical structure that has an
extensive range of movement. Biped humans have a greater load on the
vertebral column, so they have optimum vertebral curvatures to distribute
body load evenly while walking or working in a daily life. Lumbar lordosis,
one of vertebral curvatures, is especially known to be an important and
decisive factor in the flexibility during different movements. Low back pain
(LBP) affects up to 80% of people at some time during their lives. It can be
caused by structural pathological conditions of the lumbar vertebrae or by
wrong postures or by paraspinal muscle spasms. Therefore, the present study
evaluated the angle of the lower lumbar curvature of the vertebral column
and the extensor muscle volume (size) in both normal (not complaining of
LBP) and pathological (with persistent LBP) individuals in different age
groups.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of the lumbar
region of the vertebral column of 200 subjects were examined. The subjects
were divided according to age into group I (21- 35 years), group II (36-50
years) and group III (above 50 years). Each group was subdivided into
normal (not complaining of LBP) and pathological (with persistent LBP)
individuals. The curvature was characterised as the angle between the upper
border (superior endplates) of L4 and S1. The extensor muscle volume was
estimated by multiplying the cross-sectional areas by the effective slice
thickness (acquired slice thickness plus slice gap) and summing across the
relevant number of slices.
The results of this study revealed that the mean angle of the lumbar
curvature of group IIa was more than in group Ia while the mean angle of the
lumbar curvature was least in age group IIIa. However, the mean angle of
the lumbar curvature in LBP subgroups was higher than normal in age group
Ib and IIIb and was lower than normal in age group IIb. The mean muscle
size in the lower lumbar part of the vertebral column (caudal to L3-L4) in
the three age groups with no LBP was least in age group IIIa. While in cases
with LBP, all measurements of the muscle size were smaller than normal
subjects.
The present work showed that there was statistically significant
positive correlation between the angle of lumbar curvature and the muscle
size in group Ia, IIa , IIIa and IIIb . While in group I b and II b, there was no statistically significant correlation.