Lung T1 MRI assessments in children with mild cystic fibrosis lung disease

Rationale Lung T1 MRI is a potential method to assess cystic fibrosis (CF) lung disease that is safe, quick, and widely available, but there are no data in children with mild CF lung disease. Objective Assess the ability of lung T1 MRI to detect abnormalities in children with mild CF lung disease. Methods We performed T1 MRI, multiple breath washout (MBW), chest computed tomography (CT), and spirometry in a cohort of 45 children with mild CF lung disease (6–11 years of age). Main Results Despite mean normal ppFEV1 values, the majority of children with CF in this study exhibited mild lung disease evident in lung clearance index (LCI) measured by MBW, chest CT Brody scores, and percent normal lung perfusion (%NLP) measured by T1 MRI. The %NLP correlated with chest CT Brody scores, as did LCI, but %NLP and LCI did not correlate with each other. Analysis of the Brody subscores showed that %NLP and LCI largely correlated with different Brody subscores. Conclusions T1 MRI can detect mild CF lung disease in children and correlates with chest CT findings. The %NLP from T1 MRI and LCI correlate with different chest CT Brody subscores, suggesting they provide complementary information about CF lung disease.