{"doi":"10.1002/jmri.28145","title":"Paraspinal Muscle in Chronic Low Back Pain: Comparison Between Standard Parameters and Chemical Shift Encoding‐Based Water–Fat <scp>MRI</scp>","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Paraspinal musculature (PSM) is increasingly recognized as a contributor to low back pain (LBP), but with conventional MRI sequences, assessment is limited. Chemical shift encoding-based water-fat MRI (CSE-MRI) enables the measurement of PSM fat fraction (FF), which may assist investigations of chronic LBP. PURPOSE: To investigate associations between PSM parameters from conventional MRI and CSE-MRI and between PSM parameters and pain. STUDY TYPE: Prospective, cross-sectional. POPULATION: Eighty-four adults with chronic LBP (44.6 ± 13.4 years; 48 males). FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3-T, T1-weighted fast spin-echo and iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least squares estimation sequences. ASSESSMENT: T1-weighted images for Goutallier classification (GC), muscle volume, lumbar indentation value, and muscle-fat index, CSE-MRI for FF extraction (L1/2-L5/S1). Pain was self-reported using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Intra- and/or interreader agreement was assessed for MRI-derived parameters. STATISTICAL TESTS: Mixed-effects and linear regression models to 1) assess relationships between PSM parameters (entire cohort and subgroup with GC grades 0 and 1; statistical significance α = 0.0025) and 2) evaluate associations of PSM parameters with pain (α = 0.05). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) for intra- and/or interreader agreement. RESULTS: The FF showed excellent intra- and interreader agreement (ICC range: 0.97-0.99) and was significantly associated with GC at all spinal levels. Subgroup analysis suggested that early/subtle changes in PSM are detectable with FF but not with GC, given the absence of significant associations between FF and GC (P-value range: 0.036 at L5/S1 to 0.784 at L2/L3). Averaged over all spinal levels, FF and GC were significantly associated with VAS scores. DATA CONCLUSION: In the absence of FF, GC may be the best surrogate for PSM quality. Given the ability of CSE-MRI to detect muscle alterations at early stages of PSM degeneration, this technique may have potential for further investigations of the role of PSM in chronic LBP. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 2.","journal":"Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging","year":2022,"id":249806,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":27,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9662,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":19285,"name":"Noah B. Bonnheim","orcid":"0000-0003-2191-180X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":327084,"name":"Gabby B. Joseph","orcid":"0000-0002-7736-123X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":472611,"name":"Ravi Chachad","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":472083,"name":"Jiamin Zhou","orcid":"0000-0002-9224-2060","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":19279,"name":"Zehra Akkaya","orcid":"0000-0002-6483-3381","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":890651,"name":"Amir M. Pirmoazen","orcid":"0000-0003-0010-8794","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":19280,"name":"Jeannie F. Bailey","orcid":"0000-0003-4618-7512","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":19296,"name":"Xiaojie Guo","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":445931,"name":"Ann Lazar","orcid":"0000-0002-6341-0360","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":305597,"name":"Thomas M. Link","orcid":"0000-0002-2850-8143","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":19293,"name":"Aaron J. Fields","orcid":"0000-0001-6460-4506","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":472612,"name":"Roland Krug","orcid":null,"position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":274932,"name":"Nico Sollmann","orcid":"0000-0002-8120-2223","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":40,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:24:23.754337Z","pmid":"35285561","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}