Population-averaged MRI atlases for automated image processing and assessments of lumbar paraspinal muscles

摘要

PurposeGrowing evidence suggests an association between lumbar paraspinal muscle degeneration and low back pain (LBP). Currently, time-consuming and laborious manual segmentations of paraspinal muscles are commonly performed on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) axial scans. Automated image analysis algorithms can mitigate these drawbacks, but they often require individual MRIs to be aligned to a standard a??referencea?? atlas. Such atlases are well established in automated neuroimaging analysis. Our aim was to create atlases of similar nature for automated paraspinal muscle measurements.