14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers from Michigan State University are conducting a study to see whether pregnancies, especially those that end with a cesarean-section delivery, have any connection to degenerative spondylolisthesis – a chronic disease that affects three to nine times more women than men, without scientists having any clear explanation.
Jacek Cholewicki and Lawrence Mysliwiec of the College of Osteopathic Medicine, are carrying out a study on 200 patients who suffer from degenerative spondylolisthesis and on 200 members of an age-matched control group.
The participants are supposed to answer detailed questionnaires, and 80 individuals of each group will undergo extensive physical examinations of the muscle in the abdomen and back, and also an evaluation of motor control.
Cholewicki said that “the innovative aspect of this proposal is that we will quantify muscle function objectively and then document the variables in women with and without the disease.
“This will give us a better chance of finding any relationships that might exist.”
Degenerative spondylolisthesis is a condition in which a vertebra slips forward onto a bone below it, and causes lower back pain, muscle tightness and nerve damage.
The current study is part of a larger project with a value of $407,000, which extends over a two-year period and is funded by National Institutes of Health.
The goal of this project is to look at the relationships between routine and cesarean section pregnancies, trunk and abdominal muscle weakness and the disease in older women.
Cholewicki, who is also co-director of MSU's Center for Orthopedic Research at Ingham Regional Orthopedic Hospital in Lansing, said that “the costs associated with the treatment of degenerative low back disease make it one of the top five most expensive conditions in American health care.
“And degenerative spondylolisthesis is considered one of the major causes of low back pain among the older population.”
There have been previous studies that have gathered evidence of a relationship between pregnancy and low back pain, establishing that abdominal muscle deficiency was an underlying cause.
“Our key question is whether pregnancy and/or muscle deficiency caused by a cesarean delivery could be a precipitating factor in the development of degenerative spondylolisthesis later in life,” explained Cholewicki.
“Since the rates of cesarean delivery rose three-fold during the past three decades, we are specifically interested in women undergoing those surgeries; a link could foretell significant public health problems in coming years.”