Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences-Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430071, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Eur Radiol. 2024 Nov;34(11):7450-7459. doi: 10.1007/s00330-024-10800-w. Epub 2024 May 15.
To comprehensively assess the impact of aging, cigarette smoking, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on pulmonary physiology using Xe MR.
A total of 90 subjects were categorized into four groups, including healthy young (HY, n = 20), age-matched control (AMC, n = 20), asymptomatic smokers (AS, n = 28), and COPD patients (n = 22). Xe MR was utilized to obtain pulmonary physiological parameters, including ventilation defect percent (VDP), alveolar sleeve depth (h), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), total septal wall thickness (d), and ratio of xenon signal from red blood cells and interstitial tissue/plasma (RBC/TP).
Significant differences were found in the measured VDP (p = 0.035), h (p = 0.003), and RBC/TP (p = 0.003) between the HY and AMC groups. Compared with the AMC group, higher VDP (p = 0.020) and d (p = 0.048) were found in the AS group; higher VDP (p < 0.001), d (p < 0.001) and ADC (p < 0.001), and lower h (p < 0.001) and RBC/TP (p < 0.001) were found in the COPD group. Moreover, significant differences were also found in the measured VDP (p < 0.001), h (p < 0.001), ADC (p < 0.001), d (p = 0.008), and RBC/TP (p = 0.032) between the AS and COPD groups.
Our findings indicate that pulmonary structure and functional changes caused by aging, cigarette smoking, and COPD are various, and show a progressive deterioration with the accumulation of these risk factors, including cigarette smoking and COPD.
Pathophysiological changes can be difficult to comprehensively understand due to limitations in common techniques and multifactorial etiologies. Xe MRI can demonstrate structural and functional changes caused by several common factors and can be used to better understand patients' underlying pathology.
Standard techniques for assessing pathophysiological lung function changes, spirometry, and chest CT come with limitations. Xe MR demonstrated progressive deterioration with accumulation of the investigated risk factors, without these limitations. Xe MR can assess lung changes related to these risk factors to stage and evaluate the etiology of the disease.
使用氙磁共振（Xe MR）全面评估衰老、吸烟和慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）对肺生理的影响。
将 90 名受试者分为四组，包括健康的年轻人（HY，n=20）、年龄匹配的对照组（AMC，n=20）、无症状吸烟者（AS，n=28）和 COPD 患者（n=22）。使用 Xe MR 获得肺生理参数，包括通气缺陷百分比（VDP）、肺泡套深度（h）、表观扩散系数（ADC）、总隔室壁厚度（d）以及来自红细胞和间质组织/血浆的氙信号比（RBC/TP）。
在 HY 和 AMC 组之间，测量的 VDP（p=0.035）、h（p=0.003）和 RBC/TP（p=0.003）存在显著差异。与 AMC 组相比，AS 组的 VDP（p=0.020）和 d（p=0.048）更高；COPD 组的 VDP（p<0.001）、d（p<0.001）和 ADC（p<0.001）较低，h（p<0.001）和 RBC/TP（p<0.001）更低。此外，AS 和 COPD 组之间的 VDP（p<0.001）、h（p<0.001）、ADC（p<0.001）、d（p=0.008）和 RBC/TP（p=0.032）的测量值也存在显著差异。
我们的研究结果表明，衰老、吸烟和 COPD 引起的肺结构和功能变化是多样的，随着这些危险因素（包括吸烟和 COPD）的积累，表现出逐渐恶化的趋势。
由于常用技术和多因素病因的限制，难以全面理解病理生理变化。Xe MRI 可以显示由多种常见因素引起的结构和功能变化，有助于更好地了解患者的潜在病理学。
评估肺生理功能变化的标准技术，如肺活量测定法和胸部 CT，存在局限性。Xe MR 显示随着所研究危险因素的积累，病情逐渐恶化，没有这些局限性。Xe MR 可以评估与这些危险因素相关的肺变化，从而对疾病进行分期和评估病因。
