The detection of inflammation in collapsed lung by alterations in proton nuclear magnetic relaxation times

The purpose of this study was to establish the proton NMR relaxation times of collapsed but otherwise normal lung tissue and to determine whether an inflammatory process within a collapsed lung can be detected by alterations in relaxation times. The lungs of three groups of rabbits were studied: group A (n = 7) had a sterile collapse of one lung for two days. The two other groups also had one lung collapsed, but with bacterial (group B, n = 6) or chemically induced (group C; n = 6) pneumonitis superimposed. The contralateral lung, which was acutely deflated at the time of thoracotomy, served as a control in each animal. T1, T2 and the total water content were measured on freshly excised lung samples. In group A, there was no significant difference in T1 (606 +/- 14* ms vs. 595 +/- 18 ms;* = SEM) or T2 (80.6 +/- 1.7 ms vs. 78.4 +/- 2.6 ms) between the collapsed and the control lung tissue. In each animal in groups B and C, T2 was longer in the collapsed lung with superimposed pneumonitis than in the control lung tissue (group B: 116.8 +/- 6.9 ms vs. 82.9 +/- 1.8 ms, P less than .001; group C: 120.5 +/- 5.9 ms vs. 86.0 +/- 1.5 ms, P less than .001). T1 changes were similar, but less marked. There was a linear relationship between the relaxation times and the total water content of the lung samples (T1:r = 0.87; T2:r = 0.91). It is concluded that proton NMR may have a potential in detecting disease such as inflammation in collapsed lung tissue based on differences in relaxation parameters compared with normal lung areas.