TABLE 1.

Comparison of different MRI modalities

MRI modality	Characteristic	Application
Conventional MRI T2‐weighted	Convenient in clinical practice; the accuracy is relatively low	The most commonly used tool in quantitative assessment
MRS	Can record the concentration of both IMCL and EMCL	IMCLs were correlated to several degenerative lumbar pathologies
Chemical‐shift MRI	Overmatches MRS in terms of EMCL; the contemporary standard for measuring EMCL	PDFF were correlated to several degenerative lumbar pathologies; and predicted the paraspinal muscle strength better than CSA
Multi‐echo MRI	Produces a concurring result compared with MRS	Have been performed in LBP patients

CSA, cross‐sectional area; EMCL, extramyocellular lipids; IMCL, intramyocellular lipids; LBP, low back pain; MRS, magnetic resonance spectroscopy; PDFF, proton density fat fractions.