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Effects of body postures on the shear modulus of thoracolumbar fascia: a shear wave elastography study

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Abstract

This study is aimed to use shear wave elastography (SWE) to study the relationship between shear modulus and different body postures of the thoracolumbar fascia (TLF) and acquire physiologically meaningful information from the stiffness-posture graph to better quantify passive flexion responses. Seven passive postures were defined to evaluate the shear modulus of right side TLF at the third and fourth lumbar vertebra levels (L3 and L4) in twenty healthy male subjects. The TLF stiffness was significantly different among different postures (p < 0.001), and the TLF stiffness at L3 was always less than that at L4 (p < 0.001). As the forward tilt increased from 0 to 60°, the TLF stiffness increased in sitting and standing postures by 54.01% and 192.84%. In the neutral postures, the TLF stiffness in standing and sitting postures was 66.98% and 165.48% higher than that in rest posture. The above results show that the elastic properties of TLF play an important role in maintaining body static posture and that the forward tilt and sitting postures are likely to induce low back pain (LBP). In conclusion, this study provides preliminary in vivo data for the relationship between body postures and TLF stiffness.

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Abbreviations

TLF:

Thoracolumbar fascia

SWE:

Shear wave elastography

L2:

Second lumbar vertebra level

L3:

Third lumbar vertebra level

L4:

Fourth lumbar vertebra level

LBP:

Low back pain

ASIS:

Anterior superior iliac spines

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

SD:

Standard deviation

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Prof. Chunlong Liu and Prof. Zhijie Zhang for technical support and review of this manuscript. SWE equipment for this article was provided by the Guangdong Province Traditional Chinese Medical Hospital. We are grateful to Ming Lin and Weixin Deng for medical screening of subjects and to the students of the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine for participated in the study as subject.

Funding

This study was supported by the “Elite Youth Education Program” of the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (No. QNYC20170107).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Medical College of Acupuncture Moxibustion and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China

    Baizhen Chen, Chunlong Liu, Ming Lin & Weixin Deng

  2. Luoyang Orthopedics Hospital of Henan Province, Luoyang City, Henan Province, China

    Zhijie Zhang

Authors
  1. Baizhen Chen
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  2. Chunlong Liu
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  3. Ming Lin
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  4. Weixin Deng
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Contributions

Baizhen Chen: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, validation, visualization, data curation, writing-original draft, and formal analysis

Chunlong Liu: Writing-review, supervision, and resources

Ming Lin: Investigation and project administration

Weixin Deng: Investigation and project administration

Zhijie Zhang: Writing-review, supervision, and resources

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhijie Zhang.

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Chen, B., Liu, C., Lin, M. et al. Effects of body postures on the shear modulus of thoracolumbar fascia: a shear wave elastography study. Med Biol Eng Comput 59, 383–390 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-021-02320-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-021-02320-2

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