Center for In Vivo Hyperpolarized Gas MR Imaging, Department of Radiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Dec 14;107(50):21707-12. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1011912107. Epub 2010 Nov 22.
Despite a myriad of technical advances in medical imaging, as well as the growing need to address the global impact of pulmonary diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, on health and quality of life, it remains challenging to obtain in vivo regional depiction and quantification of the most basic physiological functions of the lung-gas delivery to the airspaces and gas uptake by the lung parenchyma and blood-in a manner suitable for routine application in humans. We report a method based on MRI of hyperpolarized xenon-129 that permits simultaneous observation of the 3D distributions of ventilation (gas delivery) and gas uptake, as well as quantification of regional gas uptake based on the associated ventilation. Subjects with lung disease showed variations in gas uptake that differed from those in ventilation in many regions, suggesting that gas uptake as measured by this technique reflects such features as underlying pathological alterations of lung tissue or of local blood flow. Furthermore, the ratio of the signal associated with gas uptake to that associated with ventilation was substantially altered in subjects with lung disease compared with healthy subjects. This MRI-based method provides a way to quantify relationships among gas delivery, exchange, and transport, and appears to have significant potential to provide more insight into lung disease.
尽管医学成像技术有了无数的进步，以及越来越需要解决哮喘和慢性阻塞性肺疾病等肺部疾病对健康和生活质量的全球影响，但仍然难以以适合人体常规应用的方式获得对肺部最基本生理功能（气体输送到肺泡和气体摄取）的体内区域描述和定量。我们报告了一种基于 MRI 的氙-129 超极化方法，该方法允许同时观察通气（气体输送）和气体摄取的 3D 分布，以及基于相关通气对区域气体摄取进行定量。患有肺部疾病的受试者在许多区域的气体摄取变化与通气不同，这表明该技术测量的气体摄取反映了肺部组织或局部血流的潜在病理改变等特征。此外，与健康受试者相比，患有肺部疾病的受试者的气体摄取相关信号与通气相关信号的比值发生了很大变化。这种基于 MRI 的方法提供了一种量化气体输送、交换和运输之间关系的方法，似乎具有提供更多关于肺部疾病的洞察力的巨大潜力。
