Regional variation of ankle and hindfoot cartilage T2 mapping values at 3 T: A feasibility study

•Ankle/hindfoot cartilage T2 mapping and subregion division method is evaluated.•Showed feasibility of comprehensive assessment of multiple ankle/hindfoot joints.•Observed significant differences in T2 between several joints/subregions. To develop a method for T2 mapping of the entire tibiotalar/hindfoot articular surfaces and to examine regional T2 variation in asymptomatic volunteers, establishing necessary methods for future T2 mapping work in patients with ankle/hindfoot injury. Twenty-six asymptomatic volunteers (11 female/13 male, aged 23–64 years in final analysis) underwent sagittal T2 mapping. Tibiotalar and hindfoot cartilage surfaces were segmented by two raters. The tibiotalar joint cartilage was divided into subregions to assess T2 variation across the joint. The articular surface and subregion mean T2 values were compared using Tukey post hoc pairwise comparisons to test for statistical significance. Mean ankle/hindfoot cartilage T2 ranged from 37 ± 3 to 47 ± 7 ms. Tibial plafond mean T2 was significantly different from the middle and posterior subtalar cartilage T2 (both articular surface comparisons resulted in P