Significance of paraspinal muscle quality in risk between single and multiple osteoporotic vertebral fractures

Purpose To compare paraspinal muscle quality between patients with single and multiple osteoporotic vertebral fractures (OVFs) and evaluate the role of the paraspinal muscles in OVFs. Methods A total of 262 consecutive patients with OVFs were retrospectively analyzed in two groups: those with single OVF (n = 173) and those with multiple OVFs (n = 89). The cross-sectional area (CSA) and fatty degeneration of the paraspinal muscles were calculated from axial T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging at the level of the L4 upper endplate by manual tracing in ImageJ software. Pearson’s correlation analysis was performed to analyze correlations of paraspinal muscle quality to multiple OVFs. Results FD in all the paraspinal muscles was significantly higher in the multiple OVF group than the single OVF group (all p