{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T01:19:46Z","timestamp":1760145586442,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":21,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,1]],"date-time":"2024-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1722470400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the preferred diagnostic means to visualize spinal pathologies, and offers the possibility of precise structural tissue analysis. However, knowledge about MRI-based measurements of physiological cross-sectional musculoskeletal dimensions and associated tissue-specific average structural brightness in the lumbar spine of healthy young women and men is scarce. The current study was planned to investigate characteristic intersexual differences and to provide MRI-related musculoskeletal baseline values before the onset of biological aging. Methods: At a single medical center, lumbar MRI scans of 40 women and 40 men aged 20\u201340 years who presented with moderate nonspecific low back pain were retrospectively evaluated for sex-specific differences in cross-sectional sizes of the fifth lumbar vertebrae, psoas and posterior paravertebral muscles, and respective sex- and age-dependent average brightness alterations on T2-weighted axial sections in the L5-level. Results: In women (mean age 33.5 years \u00b1 5.0 (standard deviation)), the investigated musculoskeletal cross-sectional area sizes were significantly smaller (p &lt; 0.001) compared to those in men (mean age 33.0 years \u00b1 5.7). Respective average musculoskeletal brightness values were higher in women compared to those in men, and most pronounced in posterior paravertebral muscles (p &lt; 0.001). By correlating brightness results to those of subcutaneous fat tissue, all intersexual differences, including those between fifth lumbar vertebrae and psoas muscles, turned out to be statistically significant. This phenomenon was least pronounced in psoas muscles. Conclusions: Lumbar musculoskeletal parameters showed significantly larger dimensions of investigated anatomical structures in men compared to those in women aged 20\u201340 years, and an earlier onset and faster progress of bone loss and muscle degradation in women.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm13154496","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,1]],"date-time":"2024-08-01T08:14:46Z","timestamp":1722500086000},"page":"4496","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Musculoskeletal Dimension and Brightness Reference Values in Lumbar Magnetic Resonance Imaging\u2014A Radio-Anatomic Investigation in 80 Healthy Adult Individuals"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6750-9213","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Horst","family":"Balling","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Musculoskeletal University Center Munich (MUM), University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany"},{"name":"Center for Spine Surgery, Neckar-Odenwald-Kliniken gGmbH Buchen, Dr.-Konrad-Adenauer-Str. 37, 74722 Buchen, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Boris Michael","family":"Holzapfel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Musculoskeletal University Center Munich (MUM), University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wolfgang","family":"B\u00f6cker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Musculoskeletal University Center Munich (MUM), University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dominic","family":"Simon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Musculoskeletal University Center Munich (MUM), University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Paul","family":"Reidler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Joerg","family":"Arnholdt","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Musculoskeletal University Center Munich (MUM), University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t Munich, Marchioninistr. 15, 81377 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,8,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"849","DOI":"10.1007\/s00132-020-03982-w","article-title":"Preoperative imaging of spinopelvic pathologies: State of the art","volume":"49","author":"Almansour","year":"2020","journal-title":"Orthopade"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kuah, T., Vellayappan, B.A., Makmur, A., Nair, S., Song, J., Tan, J.H., Kumar, N., Quek, S.T., and Hallinan, J.T.P.D. 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