Ultrasonographic Changes of Abdominal Muscles in Subjects with and without Chronic Low Back Pain.

Iria Da Cuña-Carrera,Mercedes Soto-González,Eva M Lantarón-Caeiro,Alejandra Alonso-Calvete

doi:10.3390/healthcare10010123

Iria Da Cuña-Carrera, Mercedes Soto-González + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10010123

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Journal: Healthcare	Publication Date: Jan 8, 2022
License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidade de Vigo

Abstract

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a prevalent disfunction in the spine, affecting both women and men. The implication of the abdominal muscles in this disfunction has been studied, including wrong breathing patterns or inactivity of this area. However, there is a lack of studies examining changes in thickness of abdominal with ultrasonography. Thus, the aim of this study is to analyze the differences in the thickness of abdominal muscles at rest and during breathing between subjects with and without CLBP. A total of 72 subjects were divided in two groups: participants with CLBP (n = 36) and participants without CLBP (n = 36). In both groups, the thickness of the four abdominal muscles was measured and compared at rest and during breathing with ultrasonography. In TrA and IO there were no significant differences between groups, but those subjects with CLBP increased the muscle thickness more than participants without pain during breathing. In EO there were no differences in muscle thickness between groups and between rest and breathing. In RA, subjects with CLBP showed less muscle thickness than subjects without pain during breathing, but no changes were found at rest. In conclusion, the deepest abdominal muscles, TrA and IO, appear to increase their thickness and RA appear to decrease more in subjects with CLBP, in comparison with healthy participants.

Highlights

Introduction and without Chronic Low BackPain.Low back pain is considered as one of the main disorders involving the spine, and one of the most prevalent in adults of both sexes, with a higher prevalence in women [1,2].chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been described as one of the major reasons for medical consultation all over the world, with a high cost for health provider systems [3,4]
In transversus abdominis (TrA), there were no significant differences in muscle thickness between subjects with and without low back pain, neither at rest (p = 0.547) nor during breathing (p = 0.277)
Results in internal oblique (IO) showed no significant differences in muscle thickness between subjects with and without low back pain, neither at rest (p = 0.176) nor during breathing (p = 0.847)

Summary

Introduction

Introduction and without Chronic Low BackPain.Low back pain is considered as one of the main disorders involving the spine, and one of the most prevalent in adults of both sexes, with a higher prevalence in women [1,2].chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been described as one of the major reasons for medical consultation all over the world, with a high cost for health provider systems [3,4]. The abdominal muscle thickness has been studied during exercises which include breathing, such as hypopressive exercises [16] or Pilates [17] and in different positions [18,19] These studies did not consider subjects with lumbar disorders and the effects of CLBP on the thickness of abdominal muscles appears to be unclear. In this context, a recent investigation analyzed the activity of the abdominal muscles during breathing with ultrasonography in males with and without CLBP [20].

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