Free-breathing Pulmonary1 H and Hyperpolarized3 He MRI

Rationale and Objectives In this proof-of-concept demonstration, we aimed to quantitatively and qualitatively compare pulmonary ventilation abnormalities derived from Fourier decomposition of free-breathing1 H magnetic resonance imaging (FDMRI) to hyperpolarized3 He MRI in subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bronchiectasis. Materials and Methods All subjects provided written informed consent to a protocol approved by a local research ethics board and Health, Canada, and they underwent MRI, computed tomography (CT), spirometry, and plethysmography during a single 2-hour visit. Semiautomated segmentation was used to generate ventilation defect measurements derived from FDMRI and3 He MRI, and these were compared using analysis of variance and Pearson correlations. Results Twenty-six subjects were evaluated including 12 COPD subjects (67 ± 9 years) and 14 bronchiectasis subjects (70 ± 11 years). For COPD subjects, FDMRI and3 He MRI ventilation defect percent (VDP) was 7 ± 6% and 24 ± 14%, respectively ( P