MRI Findings in the Lumbar Spine Following an Extreme Winter Ultramarathon: A Case Report
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Ultramarathons are increasingly popular. Low back pain is common among ultramarathon racers, yet the effects of extreme endurance running on the lumbar spine are largely unknown. CASE PRESENTATION: We aimed to describe changes in the lumbar spine of 1 male athlete with chronic low back pain after completing a 610-km, 9-day winter ultramarathon. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was obtained before and after the race to evaluate intervertebral discs, facet joints, and paraspinal muscles from L1-L2 to L5-S1. OUTCOME: Postrace reductions in disc height and disc MRI T2 signal intensity were observed. Disc degeneration (Pfirrmann Grade IV) and early signs of disc desiccation were noted at L5-S1 and L4-L5, respectively. Increased facet joint effusion, decreased muscle cross-sectional area, and MRI fat-signal fraction were observed postrace at most levels. DISCUSSION: Minimal changes were observed in the lumbar spine of a single athlete, despite the extraordinary physiological demands of a 610-km winter ultramarathon. JOSPT Cases 2025;5(3):163-170. Epub 10 July 2025. doi:10.2519/josptcases.2025.0110
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.006 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.002 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".