Assessment of lung ventilation of premature infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia at 1.5 Tesla using phase-resolved functional lung magnetic resonance imaging.

BACKGROUND

The most common chronic complication of preterm birth is bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), widely referred to as chronic lung disease of prematurity. All current definitions rely on characterizing the disease based on respiratory support level and do not provide full understanding of the underlying cardiopulmonary pathophysiology.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate a rapid functional lung imaging technique in premature infants and to quantitate pulmonary ventilation using 1.5 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We conducted a prospective MRI study of 12 premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) using the phase resolved functional lung MRI technique to calculate pulmonary ventilation parameters in preterm infants with and without BPD grade 0/1 (n = 6) and grade 2/3 (n = 6).

RESULTS

The total ventilation defect percentage showed a significant difference between groups (16.0% IQR (11.0%,18%) BPD grade 2/3 vs. 8.0% IQR (4.5%,9.0%) BPD grade 0/1, p = 0.01).

CONCLUSION

Phase-resolved functional lung MRI is feasible for assessment of ventilation defect percentages in preterm infants and shows regional variation in localized lung function in this population.