Accompanying Mobile MRI T2*-Mapping of Ankle- And Hindfoot Joint Cartilage on 22 Endurance Athletes During a Transcontinental Footrace Over 4,500 Km Using a 40-Tonnes Truck Trailer.

Uwe Hans-Werner Schtz¹, Daniel Schoss¹, Hans-Jrgen Brambs¹, Christian Billich¹

Unique data on T2* mapping of ankle and hindfoot joints from a field study with a mobile 1.5T MRI truck trailer accompanying 22 endurance athletes on their 4,500 km multistage ultra marathon through whole Europe in 64 days are presented. A single ultra marathon does not bather the ability of cartilage to react with physiological hydration to the running burden. But daily ultra marathon over 9 weeks without any day rest shows a decrease of cartilage ability of ankle and hindfoot joints to hydrate, indicating that this immense amount of running burden initiates degenerative processes.