Airway closure is the predominant physiological mechanism of low ventilation seen on hyperpolarized helium-3 MRI lung scans.

Hyperpolarized helium-3 MRI (He MRI) provides detailed visualization of low- (hypo- and non-) ventilated lungs. Physiological measures of gas mixing may be assessed by multiple breath nitrogen washout (MBNW) and of airway closure by a forced oscillation technique (FOT). We hypothesize that in patients with asthma, areas of low-ventilated lung on He MRI are the result of airway closure. Ten control subjects, ten asthma subjects with normal spirometry (non-obstructed), and ten asthmatic subjects with reduced baseline lung function (obstructed) attended two testing sessions. On visit one, baseline plethysmography was performed followed by spirometry, MBNW, and FOT assessment pre and post methacholine challenge. On visit two, He MRI scans were conducted pre and post methacholine challenge. Post methacholine the volume of low-ventilated lung increased from 8.3% to 13.8% in the non-obstructed group ( = 0.012) and from 13.0% to 23.1% in the obstructed group ( = 0.001). For all subjects, the volume of low ventilation from He MRI correlated with a marker of airway closure in obstructive subjects, Xrs (6 Hz) and the marker of ventilation heterogeneity Scond with values of 0.61 ( < 0.001) and 0.56 ( < 0.001), respectively. The change in Xrs (6 Hz) correlated well ( = 0.45, < 0.001), whereas the change in Scond was largely independent of the change in low ventilation volume ( = 0.13, < 0.01). The only significant predictor of low ventilation volume from the multi-variate analysis was Xrs (6 Hz). This is consistent with the concept that regions of poor or absent ventilation seen on He MRI are primarily the result of airway closure. This study introduces a novel technique of generating high-resolution 3D ventilation maps from hyperpolarized helium-3 MRI. It is the first study to demonstrate that regions of poor or absent ventilation seen on He MRI are primarily the result of airway closure.