Abdominal adipose tissue thickness measured using magnetic resonance imaging is associated with lumbar disc degeneration in a Chinese patient population

Abstract

// Lili Yang 1,2,* , Liangshan Mu 3,* , Kaiyu Huang 4 , Tianyi Zhang 4 , Zihan Mei 4 , Wenrong Zeng 4 , Jiawei He 1 , Wei Chen 1 , Xiaozheng Liu 2 , Xinjian Ye 1 and Zhihan Yan 1,2 1 Radiology Department, The Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children’s Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China 2 China-USA Neuroimaging Research Institute of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China 3 Reproductive Medicine Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China 4 Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, People’s Republic of China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Xinjian Ye, email: // Zhihan Yan, email: // Keywords : intervertebral disc degeneration; low back pain; abdominal fat; magnetic resonance imaging; Gerotarget Received : February 17, 2016 Accepted : September 25, 2016 Published : November 09, 2016 Abstract The relationship between abdominal adiposity and disc degeneration remains largely uninvestigated. Here, we investigated the association between abdominal adipose tissue thickness and lumbar disc degeneration in a cross-sectional study of 2415 participants from The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University. All subjects were scanned with a 3T Magnetic Resonance Imaging system to evaluate the degree of lumbar disc degeneration. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that men in the highest quartiles for abdominal diameter (AD), sagittal diameter (SAD), and ventral subcutaneous thickness (VST) were at higher odds ratio for severe lumbar disc degeneration than men in the lowest quartiles. The adjusted model revealed that women in the highest quartiles for AD and SAD were also at higher odds ratio for severe lumbar disc degeneration than women in the lowest quartiles. Our results suggest that abdominal obesity might be one of underlying mechanisms of lumbar disc degeneration, and preventive strategies including weight control could be useful to reduce the incidence of lumbar disc degeneration. Prospective studies are needed to this confirm these results and to identify more deeper underlying mechanisms.