Functional Lung MRI in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Comparison of T1 Mapping, Oxygen-Enhanced T1 Mapping and Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Perfusion

Abstract

Native and oxygen-enhanced T1 mapping correlated with lung perfusion deficits and severity of COPD. Under the assumption that T1 at room air correlates with the regional pulmonary blood pool and that oxygen-enhanced T1 reflects lung ventilation, both techniques in combination are principally suitable to characterize ventilation-perfusion imbalance. This appears valuable for the assessment of regional lung characteristics in COPD trials without administration of i.v. contrast.