Evidence synthesis showed limited evidence supporting poor baseline transversus abdominis contraction thickness ratio as a treatment effect modifier favoring motor control exercise .
Limited evidence supported that high baseline transversus abdominis lateral slide was associated with higher pain intensity after various exercise interventions at 1-year follow-up .
However , there was limited evidence for the absence of relation between the contraction thickness ratio of transversus abdominis or anticipatory onset of lateral abdominal muscles at baseline and the short- or long-term LBP intensity after exercise interventions .
There was conflicting evidence for a relation between baseline percent thickness change of lumbar multifidus during contraction and the clinical outcomes of patients after various conservative treatments .
Although individual reports suggest that baseline morphometry or activity of transversus abdominis or lumbar multifidus predict clinical outcome of low back pain ( LBP ) , a related systematic review is unavailable .
Therefore , this review summarized evidence regarding the predictive value of these muscular characteristics .
Lumbar multifidus muscle thickness does not predict patients with low back pain who improve with trunk stabilization exercises.
OBJECTIVE To underst and lumbar multifidus ( LM ) muscle activation as a clinical feature to predict patients with low back pain ( LBP ) who are likely to benefit from stabilization ( STB ) exercises .  DESIGN Prospect i ve , cohort study . SETTING Outpatient physical therapy clinics . PARTICIPANTS Persons with LBP were recruited for this study . Subjects ( N=25 ) were classified as either eligible to receive STB exercises or ineligible on the basis of current clinical prediction rules . INTERVENTIONS Six weeks of STB treatment . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Before and after treatment , subjects underwent rehabilitative ultrasound imaging to quantify LM-muscle activation and completed disability and pain question naires . Analyses were performed to examine the ( 1 ) relation between LM-muscle activation and current clinical features used to predict patients with LBP likely to benefit from STB exercises , ( 2 ) LM-muscle activation between the STB-eligible and STB-ineligible groups before and after STB treatment , and ( 3 ) relation between LM-muscle activation before STB treatment and ( a ) disability and ( b ) pain outcomes after treatment for both groups . RESULTS No relation was found between LM-muscle activation and the number of clinical features . Before STB treatment , LM-muscle activation between the STB-eligible and STB-ineligible groups did not differ . After STB treatment , LM-muscle activation differed between the groups ; however , this interaction was because the LM-muscle activation for the STB-eligible group decreased after treatment while that for the STB-ineligible group increased after treatment . Finally , only the STB-eligible group had a significant reduction in disability following treatment ; however , no relation was found between LM-muscle activation before treatment and ( a ) disability or ( b ) pain outcomes after treatment in the STB-eligible group . CONCLUSIONS LM-muscle activation does not appear to be a clinical feature that predicts patients with LBP likely to benefit from STB exercises
Evidence synthesis showed limited evidence supporting poor baseline transversus abdominis contraction thickness ratio as a treatment effect modifier favoring motor control exercise .
Limited evidence supported that high baseline transversus abdominis lateral slide was associated with higher pain intensity after various exercise interventions at 1-year follow-up .
However , there was limited evidence for the absence of relation between the contraction thickness ratio of transversus abdominis or anticipatory onset of lateral abdominal muscles at baseline and the short- or long-term LBP intensity after exercise interventions .
There was conflicting evidence for a relation between baseline percent thickness change of lumbar multifidus during contraction and the clinical outcomes of patients after various conservative treatments .
Although individual reports suggest that baseline morphometry or activity of transversus abdominis or lumbar multifidus predict clinical outcome of low back pain ( LBP ) , a related systematic review is unavailable .
Therefore , this review summarized evidence regarding the predictive value of these muscular characteristics .