Activation imbalances in lumbar spine muscles in the presence of chronic low back pain
Abstract
Paraspinal electromyographic (EMG) activity was recorded bilaterally from three lumbar levels during 30-s isometric trunk extensions [40 and 80% of maximum voluntary contraction (MVC)] in 20 healthy men and 14 chronic low back pain patients in pain. EMG parameters indicating neuromuscular fatigue and contralateral imbalances in EMG root-mean-square amplitude and median frequency were analyzed. Patients in pain showed less fatigue than controls at both contraction levels and produced only 55% of their MVC. Patients in pain likely did not produce a “true” maximum effort. A low MVC estimate would mean lower absolute contraction levels and less neuromuscular fatigue, thus explaining lower scores in the patients. Contralateral root-mean-square amplitude imbalances were present in both categories of subjects although such imbalances, when averaged across lumbar levels, were significantly larger in patients. Median frequency imbalances were significantly larger in the patients, at segmental as well as across lumbar levels. These results suggest that the presence of pain in these patients caused a redistribution of the activation behavior between synergistic muscles of the lumbar back.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Oddsson and DeLuca found similar uncompensated imbalance in LBP patients and healthy controls, but high compensated RMS imbalance was a sign of unhealthy back muscle function in LBP patients.
“Oddsson and Carlo [10] found similar levels of uncompensated imbalance in LBP patients and healthy control participants whereas they found that high compensated RMS imbalance, i.e., large residual activation imbalances, was a sign of unhealthy back muscle function in LBP patients.”
From Comparison of muscle activation imbalance following core stability or general exercises in nonspecific low back pain: a quasi-randomized controlled trial (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
The uncompensated and compensated EMG-based imbalance parameters were introduced to show how contralateral trunk muscles are contracted during a sustained isometric contraction in a symmetrical task.
“The concept of uncompensated and compensated EMG-based imbalance parameters has been introduced to show how contralateral muscles in the trunk are contracted during a sustained isometric contraction in a symmetrical task [10].”
From Comparison of muscle activation imbalance following core stability or general exercises in nonspecific low back pain: a quasi-randomized controlled trial (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
Prior studies have reported trunk muscle imbalance in LBP compared with healthy subjects, while others have failed to show differences in muscle activity between these two groups.
“Trunk muscle imbalance in LBP compared with healthy subjects has been reported in some studies [10, 21] though other studies [22] have failed to show differences in muscle activity between these two groups.”
From Comparison of muscle activation imbalance following core stability or general exercises in nonspecific low back pain: a quasi-randomized controlled trial (2020) · cites this paper as [10]
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 73 · Cited by 147
- Authors
- Oddsson, L. I. E., & De Luca, C. J.
- Affiliations
- NeuroMuscular Research Center and
- ORCID
- Oddsson, Lars I. E.
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Physiology
- Publisher
- American Physiological Society
- Published
- 2003-04-01
- Volume
- 94
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1410-1420
- ISSN
- 0161-7567 (ISSN-L)
- 8750-7587
- 1522-1601
- OpenAlex
- W2143891522
- Cited by
- 147
- References
- 73
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 4.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Physiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Muscle activation and electromyography studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pathology and Forensic Medicine › Spine and Intervertebral Disc Pathology
- Keywords
- chronic low back pain, lumbar paraspinal muscles, neuromuscular fatigue, root mean square amplitude, median frequency, maximal voluntary contraction, muscle synergies, electromyography
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Chronic Disease, Electromyography, Humans, Lumbosacral Region, Male, Middle Aged, Neuromuscular Junction, Spine, Case-Control Studies, Low Back Pain, Muscle, Skeletal, Muscle Fatigue
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
