Assessment of pulmonary physiological changes caused by aging, cigarette smoking, and COPD with hyperpolarized 129Xe magnetic resonance

Objective To comprehensively assess the impact of aging, cigarette smoking, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on pulmonary physiology using 129 Xe MR. Methods 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). 129 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). Results 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