Evaluation of fat fraction of multifidus muscle with Dixon-VIBE and magnetic resonance spectroscopy and its correlation with isokinetic strength of lumbar and dorsal muscles

Abstract

Objective To explore the evaluation effectiveness of MRI Dixon-VIBE and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) on the fat fraction of multifidus muscle, and to investigate its fitting degree to isokinetic strength detection of lumbodorsal muscles. Methods A total of 38 middle-aged and elderly subjects were publicly recruited from the outpatient department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Army Medical University between 2020 and 2021. All the subjects underwent MRI Dixon-VIBE sequence and MRS sequence scanning, and received isokinetic muscle function evaluation of lumbar and dorsal muscles, whose parameters included peak torque (PT), flexion/extension (F/E) and endurance ratio (ER). The fat fraction (FF) of multifidus muscle measured by the 2 sequences was compared, and the fitting degree between the multifidus FF and the isokinetic muscle function of lumbodorsal muscles was analyzed after weighted correction. Results In Dixon-VIBE sequence, there was a positive correlation between multifidus FF and F/E (r=0.350, P < 0.05), and after weighted correction of height, weight and body mass index (BMI), FF was still positively correlated with F/E (r=0.371, 0.382, 0.338, P < 0.05). While in MRS sequences, no significant correlation was observed between multifidus FF (including corrected) and F/E. In addition, there was no notable correlation of multifidus FF (including corrected) with PT and ER in both Dixon-VIBE and MRS sequences. Conclusion The multifidus FF measured by Dixon-VIBE sequence is correlated with the F/E of isokinetic muscle function of lumbodorsal muscles, and the correlation is further improved after weighted calculation by body weight.

Keywords

• magnetic resonance dixon-vibe
• magnetic resonance spectroscopy
• multifidus muscle
• fat fraction
• isokinetic muscle function