{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,28]],"date-time":"2026-09-28T18:09:59Z","timestamp":1790618999245,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":10,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,28]],"date-time":"2020-03-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1585353600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003196","name":"Ministero della Salute","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["RC 2017-2019"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["RC 2017-2019"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003196","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JCM"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: the study of paraspinal muscles is pivotal for the diagnosis and staging of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and is usually performed by electromyography. Objective: to evaluate the role of paraspinal muscle MRI as a diagnostic biomarker in ALS. Methods: we evaluated T1-w images of newly diagnosed ALS patients (n = 14), age-matched healthy controls (n = 11), patients affected by inflammatory myopathy (n = 10), and lumbar radiculopathy (n = 19), and compared them semiquantitatively by using the Mercuri Scale. Results: a significant difference in the appearance of the psoas muscle was observed between ALS patients and patients with radiculopathy (p = 0.003); after stratifying ALS patients into spinal and bulbar onsets, we found a significant difference in the appearance of the longissimus dorsi muscle between the spinal onset ALS subgroup and bulbar onset ALS subgroup (p = 0.0245), while no difference was found for multifidus (p = 0.1441), iliocostal (p = 0.0655), and psoas muscles (p = 0.0813) between the cohort subgroups. Conclusions: paraspinal T1-w MRI could help to distinguish spinal ALS patients from healthy and pathological controls. Specifically, the study of longissimus dorsi could play the role of a diagnostic ALS biomarker.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jcm9040934","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,4,2]],"date-time":"2020-04-02T13:39:34Z","timestamp":1585834774000},"page":"934","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["MRI Study of Paraspinal Muscles in Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Luca","family":"Diamanti","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100 Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Matteo","family":"Paoletti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100 Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Umberto","family":"Di Vita","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6017-3964","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shaun Ivan","family":"Muzic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9571-0862","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristina","family":"Cereda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100 Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3217-8930","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elena","family":"Ballante","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100 Pavia, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anna","family":"Pichiecchio","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IRCCS Mondino Foundation, 27100 Pavia, Italy"},{"name":"Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, 27100 Pavia, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"893","DOI":"10.1249\/MSS.0000000000000179","article-title":"Paraspinal muscle morphology and composition: A 15-yr longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging study","volume":"46","author":"Fortin","year":"2014","journal-title":"Med. 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Disord."}],"container-title":["Journal of Clinical Medicine"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2077-0383\/9\/4\/934\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:12:59Z","timestamp":1760173979000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2077-0383\/9\/4\/934"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,28]]},"references-count":10,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,4]]}},"alternative-id":["jcm9040934"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/jcm9040934","relation":{},"ISSN":["2077-0383"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2077-0383","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,3,28]]}}}