Paravertebral Muscles Assessment Using High-resolution MRI in Idiopathic or Neuromuscular Scoliosis Children

Scoliosis is a common three-dimensional spinal deformity defined by vertebral rotation.

Apart from collapse scoliosis, clinical and radiological similarities have been observed in children with secondary scoliosis of neuromuscular origin and children with idiopathic scoliosis in terms of the location and type of curvature.

It seems relevant to study the axial musculature in these children in more detail, particularly the deep muscles (transversospinales muscles) that have a stabilising and rotational function (multifidi and rotatores).

MRI is a non-invasive, non-irradiating technique used in the aetiological diagnosis of idiopathic scoliosis before adolescence and in the diagnosis of secondary scoliosis. However, the muscles are not specifically studied during these examinations. They are performed to analyse the spinal cord and rule out hinge deformities, although this technique does provide information on the paravertebral muscles.

The muscles of interest should be analysed using the usual sequences, with the addition of a sequence (DTI) specific to the study of deep muscles in children undergoing axial MRI. This adds 5 minutes to the standard MRI procedure.

Several morphological muscle parameters would be thus obtained on specific interest areas and then compared between right and left side and between two groups of children, 5 suffering from idiopathic scoliosis and 5 with neuromuscular scoliosis.

Idiopathic scoliosis corresponds to a heterogeneous group of patients in terms of the location, number and progression of the curves. The research hypothesis is that there may be a subgroup of patients with idiopathic scoliosis whose progression and/or aetiology is muscular in origin.

MRI could then become a routine examination in the assessment of all scoliosis, whether idiopathic or not.