Fatty infiltration of paraspinal muscles is associated with bone mineral density of lumbar spine

Paraspinal muscle fatty infiltration (FI) is an important factor affecting spinal function. However, there is no previous study investigating the relationship between paraspinal muscle FF and spinal BMD. Our study demonstrated that fat fractions of erector spinae (ES), multifidus(MF) and psoas(PS) of subjects with normal bone density were all significantly less than those of subjects with osteopenia and those with osteoporosis. There is an inverse correlation between paraspinal muscle FF and vertebral BMD after controlling for age, sex and BMI. Our results show paraspinal muscle FI increases while vertebral BMD decreases.