There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
<p xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" class="first" id="d9201211e75">Different
hypotheses have been proposed about the role of lumbar connective tissue
in low back pain (LBP). However, none of the previous studies have examined the change
in the elastic behavior of lumbar fascia in patients with LBP. The present study aimed
to evaluate the changes in the elastic behavior of lumbar fascia in patients with
chronic non-specific LBP based on ultrasound imaging. The sonographic strain imaging
assessed the thoracolumbar fascia (TLF) of 131 human subjects (68 LBP and 63 non-LBP).
Assessments were done at L2-L3 and L4-L5 levels bilaterally. The points were located
2 cm lateral to the midpoint of the interspinous ligament. There were no significant
differences in age, sex, and BMI between LBP and healthy individuals. There is a strong
inverse relationship between pain severity (r = -0.76, n = 68, p = 0.004) and the
TLF elastic modulus coefficient. No significant relationship were observed between
age (r = 0.053, n = 68, p = 0.600), BMI (r = -0.45, n = 68, p = 0.092), and gender
(r = -0.09, n = 68, p = 0.231) with the TLF elasticity coefficient. The LBP group
had a 25%-30% lower TLF elastic modulus coefficient than healthy individuals. The
present study is the first to evaluate the elastic coefficient of TLF using the ultrasound
imaging method. The study results showed that the TLF elastic coefficient in patients
with LBP was reduced compared to healthy individuals and directly related to LBP severity.
</p>