Quantifying lumbar paraspinal intramuscular fat: Accuracy and reliability of automated thresholding models.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The reported level of lumbar paraspinal intramuscular fat (IMF) in people with low back pain (LBP) varies considerably across studies using conventional T₁- and T₂-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences. This may be due to the different thresholding models employed to quantify IMF. In this study we investigated the accuracy and reliability of established (two-component) and novel (three-component) thresholding models to measure lumbar paraspinal IMF from T₂-weighted MRI.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we included MRI scans from 30 people with LBP (50% female; mean (SD) age: 46.3 (15.0) years). Gaussian mixture modelling (GMM) and K-means clustering were used to quantify IMF bilaterally from the lumbar multifidu

SUBMITTER: Wesselink EO 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10869289 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature