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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomechanics
Volume 13 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1524844
This article is part of the Research Topic Use of Digital Human Modeling for Promoting Health, Care and Well-Being View all 7 articles
Biomechanical effects of altered multifidus muscle morphology on cervical spine tissues
Provisionally accepted- 1 Shenzhen Pingle Orthopedic Hospital, Shenzhen, China
- 2 Shenzhen Guangming District People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China
Background: Muscle fat infiltration and atrophy were common pathomorphologic changes in the paravertebral muscles. Some studies indicated that degeneration of paravertebral muscles may be one of the important causes of chronic neck pain. Therefore, we investigated the mechanical effects of multifidus muscle morphologic changes on cervical spine tissues by constructing cervical spine models of polydactyl muscles with different degrees of atrophy.Method: Three-dimensional finite element models of the cervical spine with 100%, 80%, and 50% with the multifidus muscle were constructed by referring to previous literature. According to the mechanical loading conditions in previous literature, the patient's head weight and 1Nm of loading were considered to be applied to the cervical spine, and the mechanical differences in the cervical intervertebral discs, joint capsule, cartilage endplates and range of motion (ROM) due to the morphological changes of the multifidus muscle were recorded and analyzed.Result: Under anterior flexion loading, model C increasing by 55% and 22% at the C5-6 segment compared to A and B, respectively. Among the three model groups, the stresses in the discs of the lower segments (C4-C7) were significantly higher than those in the upper segments. Under posterior extension loading, the strain values of the joint capsule were higher in the lower cervical segments, with the maximum strain values in the C5-6 segments. The maximum strain values in the lower cartilage endplates were in the C5-6 segments in model group A, whereas the maximum values were in the C4-5 segments in both models B and C. The maximum values in the lower cervical segments were in the C4-6 and C4-5 segments. In addition, a similar trend described above occurs in lateral bending and axial rotation conditions.
Keywords: Multifidus muscle, Cervical, Intervertebral Disc, Finite Element, Joint capsules
Received: 08 Nov 2024; Accepted: 28 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xu, Li and Sheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chenxing Li, Shenzhen Guangming District People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China
Zhizhong Sheng, Shenzhen Pingle Orthopedic Hospital, Shenzhen, China
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