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• Clinical Article •
Quantitative assessment of articular cartilage in the foot and ankle of amateur marathon runners by T2* mapping and analysis of its related influencing factors
GAO Yali  LAN Xiaochuan  WANG Shu  SONG Lingheng  CHEN Wei 

Cite this article as: GAO Y L, LAN X C, WANG S, et al. Quantitative assessment of articular cartilage in the foot and ankle of amateur marathon runners by T2* mapping and analysis of its related influencing factors[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(2): 94-99. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.02.015.


[Abstract] Objective Quantitative analysis of T2* values of articular cartilage in the foot and ankle of amateur marathon runners based on T2* mapping, and analysis of their relationship with gender, age, body mass index (BMI), running age, and running volume.Materials and Methods From July 2023 to September 2023, 48 long-distance runners in Chongqing were recruited according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study, including 36 cases with running distance volume < 300 km/month (low to medium running volume group) and 12 cases with running distance volume ≥ 300 km/month (high running volume group). The unilateral asymptomatic ankle joints of all subjects were scanned using MRI, and the scanning sequences included T2* mapping multi-echo spine cho (SE) sequence sagittal, proton density-weighted imaging fat-saturated (PDWI-FS) sequence sagittal, coronal, transverse axial, and T1-weighted imaging fat-saturated (T1WI-FS) sequence transverse axial. The cartilage of the talar dome, the calcaneal surfaces and cuboid surfaces of the calcaneocuboid joint, the calcaneal surfaces and talar surfaces of the posterior subtalar joint were outlined as regions of interest (ROI) along the edges of the articular cartilage contour, and the corresponding T2* values were obtained. Analyze the relationship between the T2* values of cartilage and age, BMI, running age with multiple linear regression, and running volume, gender with independent samples t-test.Results (1) The differences of cartilage T2* values of the talar dome, the calcaneal surfaces and cuboid surfaces of the calcaneocuboid joint, the calcaneal surfaces and talar surfaces of the posterior subtalar joint were statistically significant in gender (P = 0.001, P < 0.001, P = 0.002, P = 0.008, P = 0.004). (2) The T2* values of cartilage of the talar dome and calcaneal surface of posterior subtalar joint of high running group were higher than those of low to medium running group (P = 0.014, 0.023), the differences in T2* values of cartilage of the calcaneal surface and cuboid surface of the calcaneocuboid joint, and the talar surface of the posterior subtalar joint were not statistically significant among the different running group (P = 0.987, 0.072, 0.724). (3) T2* values of cartilage in the talar dome, the calcaneal surfaces and the cuboid surfaces of the calcaneocuboid joint, the calcaneal surfaces and the talar surfaces of the posterior subtalar joint are positively correlated with BMI (r = 0.376, 0.384, 0.300, 0.422, 0.455; P = 0.005, 0.004, 0.019, 0.001, 0.001).Conclusions In amateur marathoners, high running volume is more likely to result in cartilage injuries to the talar dome, the calcaneal surfaces of the posterior subtalar joint compared with low running volume; whereas high BMI increase the risk of cartilage injuries to the talar dome, heel facet of the calcaneus and dice joints, and cartilage injuries to the talar dome, the calcaneal surfaces and cuboid surfaces of the calcaneocuboid joint, the calcaneal surfaces and talar surfaces of the posterior subtalar joint, compared with lower BMI.
[Keywords] amateur marathon；running；cartilage；magnetic resonance imaging；T2* mapping

GAO Yali1, 2   LAN Xiaochuan2   WANG Shu2   SONG Lingheng2   CHEN Wei1*  

1 Department of Radiology, the Southwest Hospital of AMU, Chongqing 400037, China

2 Department of Radiology, 958th Army Hospital, Chongqing 400020, China

Corresponding author: CHEN W, E-mail: landcw@tmmu.edu.cn

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2024-07-30
Accepted  2025-02-10
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.02.015
Cite this article as: GAO Y L, LAN X C, WANG S, et al. Quantitative assessment of articular cartilage in the foot and ankle of amateur marathon runners by T2* mapping and analysis of its related influencing factors[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(2): 94-99. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.02.015.

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