Quantitative assessment of the lumbar paraspinal muscle in patients with unilateral lumbar disc herniation by IDEAL-IQ MR sequence

The development, progression, treatment and rehabilitation of lumbar disc herniation (LDH) are strongly associated with morphology and structural characteristics of lumbar paraspinal muscle. The IDEAL-IQ MR sequence allows the direct quantification of lumbar paraspinal muscle properties including fat fraction (FF) and cross-sectional area (CSA). The side-to-side differences between quantitative properties of bilateral paraspinal muscles in patients with unilateral LDH remain unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the possible unilateral changes of the paraspinal muscles in patients with unilateral LDH. Our results found no difference in FF and CSA values of paraspinal muscles between the affected and unaffected sides.