Dynamic Ventilation He-3 MRI for the Quantification of Disease in the Rat Lung

作者：Kyriazis Angelos^*; Rodriguez I; Nin N; Izquierdo Garcia J L; Lorente J A; Perez Sanchez J M; Pesic J; Olsson L E; Ruiz Cabello J

来源：IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 2012, 59(3): 777-786.

DOI：10.1109/TBME.2011.2179299

• Elastase-treated rats
• hyperpolarized He-3 MRI
• inflation rate
• pulmonary ventilation
• regional flow

Pulmonary diseases are known to be largely inhomogeneous. To evaluate such inhomogeneities, we are testing an image-based method to measure gas flow in the lung regionally. Dynamic, spin-density-weighted hyperpolarized He-3 MR images performed during slow inhalation of this gas were analyzed to quantify regional inflation rate. This parameter was measured in regions of interest (ROIs) that were defined by a rectangular grid that covered the entire rat lung and grew dynamically with it during its inflation. We used regional inflation rate to quantify elastase-induced emphysema and to differentiate healthy (n = 8) from elastase-treated (n = 9) rat lungs as well as healthy from elastase-treated areas of one rat unilaterally treated with elastase in the left lung. Emphysema was also assessed by gold standard morphological and well-established hyperpolarized He-3 MRI diffusion measurements. Mean values of regional inflation rates were significantly different for healthy and elastase-treated animals and correlated well with the apparent diffusion coefficient of He-3 and morphological measurements. The image-based biomarker inflation rate may be useful for the assessment of regional lung ventilation.

• 出版日期2012-3