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© 2009 The American Thoracic Society doi: 10.1513/pats.200902-008AW Quantitative Assessment of Lung Using Hyperpolarized Magnetic Resonance Imaging1 Department of Radiology, and 2 Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Division, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and 3 Department of Otolaryngology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Rahim R. Rizi, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Radiology, 1 Silverstein Bldg., 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. E-mail: rizi{at}uphs.upenn.edu ABSTRACT Improvements in the quantitative assessment of structure, function, and metabolic activity in the lung, combined with improvements in the spatial resolution of those assessments, enhance the diagnosis and evaluation of pulmonary disorders. Radiologic methods are among the most attractive techniques for the comprehensive assessment of the lung, as they allow quantitative assessment of this organ through measurements of a number of structural, functional, and metabolic parameters. Hyperpolarized nuclei magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has opened up new territories for the quantitative assessment of lung function and structure with an unprecedented spatial resolution and sensitivity. This review article presents a survey of recent developments in the field of pulmonary imaging using hyperpolarized nuclei MRI for quantitative imaging of different aspects of the lung, as well as preclinical applications of these techniques to diagnose and evaluate specific pulmonary diseases. After presenting a brief overview of various hyperpolarization techniques, this survey divides the research activities of the field into four broad areas: lung microstructure, ventilation, oxygenation, and perfusion. Finally, it discusses the challenges currently faced by researchers in this field to translate this rich body of methodology into wider-scale clinical applications.
Key Words: hyperpolarized gas MRI hyperpolarized 13C MRI quantitative lung imaging Related articles in Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society:
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