Correlating Diffusion Tensor Imaging Parameters with Lumbar Paraspinal Muscle Fat Infiltration: Implications for Sarcopenia Diagnosis

Motivation: With the rise of aging-related muscle diseases, particularly sarcopenia, there's a pressing need for advanced diagnostic methods to assess muscle health. Goal(s): Investigate the relationship between DTI imaging parameters and fat infiltration in paraspinal muscle, to identify novel biomarkers for early detection of muscle degeneration. Approach: Employing DTI on 16 volunteers, we measured fat infiltration using PDFF and conducted a correlational analysis between DTI metrics and fat content across 64 ROIs. Results: DTI successfully visualized paraspinal muscle fibers and showed significant correlations between FA values and PDFF, MD, AD, and RD values.Impact: The research underscores the potential of DTI in detecting imaging biomarkers for muscle degeneration, setting the stage for advanced non-invasive assessments of musculoskeletal health.