Lung function measurement of single lungs by lung area segmentation on 2D dynamic MRI

Area of Science:

• Pulmonary Medicine
• Medical Imaging
• Diagnostic Technology

Background:

• Lung diseases are often unevenly distributed, yet diagnosed using global spirometry.
• Regional lung function assessment could lead to earlier disease detection.
• Dynamic 2D MRI offers high temporal resolution for visualizing lung motion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the agreement between lung area measurements from dynamic 2D MRI and spirometry.
• To determine if 2D MRI can be used for functional testing of individual lungs.

Main Methods:

• Ten healthy volunteers underwent dynamic 2D MRI (1.5 T, Flash 2D sequence) with simultaneous spirometry.
• Lung area was semi-automatically segmented from MRI data.
• MRI-derived lung area changes were compared to spirometric volume changes.

Main Results:

• MRI and spirometry generated nearly congruent volume-time and flow-volume curves.
• High correlation (r > 0.97) was observed between MRI lung area and spirometry.
• Bland-Altman analysis showed good agreement, with limits of agreement <11%.

Conclusions:

• 2D MRI lung area measurement provides functional data for single lungs with good agreement to spirometry.
• Postprocessing is clinically feasible and may enhance sensitivity for detecting inhomogeneous lung diseases.