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Multi-modal Pulmonary Imaging: Using Complementary Information from CT and Hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI to Evaluate Lung Structure-Function
Published on: April 12, 2024
Expanding Applications of Pulmonary MRI in the Clinical Evaluation of Lung Disorders: Fleischner Society Position
Hiroto Hatabu1, Yoshiharu Ohno1, Warren B Gefter1
1From the Center for Pulmonary Functional Imaging, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St, Boston, MA 02115 (H.H.); Department of Radiology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Aichi, Japan (Y.O.); Department of Radiology, Penn Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa (W.B.G.); Department of Medical Biophysics, Western University, London, Canada (G.P.); Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass (B.M.); Department of Radiology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine (SKKU-SOM), Seoul, Korea (K.S.L.); Department of Radiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo (T.A.A.); Department of Radiology, National Jewish Health, Denver, Colo (D.A.L.); Department of Radiology, Vancouver General Hospital and University of British Colombia, Vancouver, Canada (J.R.M.); Department of Radiology, Research Institute of Radiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea (J.B.S.); Section of Academic Radiology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom (J.M.W.); Edinburgh Imaging, Queen's Medical Research Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom (E.J.R.v.B.); Department of Radiology, UW Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wis (M.L.S.); and Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Heidelberg, Translational Lung Research Center Heidelberg, member of the German Center of Lung Research, Heidelberg, Germany (H.U.K.).
Abstract:
Pulmonary MRI provides structural and quantitative functional images of the lungs without ionizing radiation, but it has had limited clinical use due to low signal intensity from the lung parenchyma. The lack of radiation makes pulmonary MRI an ideal modality for pediatric examinations, pregnant women, and patients requiring serial and longitudinal follow-up. Fortunately, recent MRI techniques, including ultrashort echo time and zero echo time, are expanding clinical opportunities for pulmonary MRI. With the use of multicoil parallel acquisitions and acceleration methods, these techniques make pulmonary MRI practical for evaluating lung parenchymal and pulmonary vascular diseases. The purpose of this Fleischner Society position paper is to familiarize radiologists and other interested clinicians with these advances in pulmonary MRI and to stratify the Society recommendations for the clinical use of pulmonary MRI into three categories: (a) suggested for current clinical use, (b) promising but requiring further validation or regulatory approval, and (c) appropriate for research investigations. This position paper also provides recommendations for vendors and infrastructure, identifies methods for hypothesis-driven research, and suggests opportunities for prospective, randomized multicenter trials to investigate and validate lung MRI methods.
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