Atrophy of gluteus maximus among women with a history of chronic low back pain.

Authors

Amy H. Amabile, Thomas Jefferson UniversityFollow
John H. Bolte, The Ohio State University
Saskia D. Richter, The Ohio State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-1-2017

Comments

This article has been peer reviewed. It is the author’s final published version in PLoS ONE

Volume 12, Issue 7, July 2017, Article number e0177008.

The published version is available at DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177008. Copyright © Amabile et al.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although the relationship between low back pain (LBP) and the size of certain trunk muscles has been extensively studied, the relationship between gluteus maximus (GM) size and LBP has been only minimally examined. Determining whether such a relationship exists would help improve our understanding of the etiology of LBP, and possibly provide a rationale for the use of therapeutic exercise interventions targeting GM with LBP patients. The objective of this study was to compare gluteus maximus cross-sectional area in individuals with chronic LBP, and in a group of individuals without LBP. Our hypothesis was that individuals with LBP would have greater atrophy in their gluteus maximus muscles than our control group.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: For this case-control study, we analyzed medical history and pelvic computed tomography (CT) scans for 36 female patients with a history of chronic LBP, and 32 female patients without a history of LBP. Muscle cross-sectional area of gluteus maximus was measured from axial CT scans using OsiriX MD software, then was normalized to patient height, and used to compare the two groups. The number of back pain-related medical visits was also correlated with gluteus maximus cross-sectional area.

RESULTS: Mean normalized cross-sectional area was significantly smaller in the LBP group than in the control group, with t = 2.439 and P

CONCLUSIONS: This research demonstrated a previously only minimally explored relationship between gluteus maximus cross-sectional area and LBP in women. Further research is indicated in individuals with varying age, sex, and LBP diagnoses.

Recommended Citation

Amabile, Amy H.; Bolte, John H.; and Richter, Saskia D., "Atrophy of gluteus maximus among women with a history of chronic low back pain." (2017). Department of Physical Therapy Faculty Papers. Paper 19.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/ptfp/19

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

PubMed ID

28715424