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Pulmonary kinematics from tagged hyperpolarized helium‐3 MRI
Author(s) -
Tustison Nicholas J.,
Awate Suyash P.,
Cai Jing,
Altes Talissa A.,
Miller G. Wilson,
de Lange Eduard E.,
Mugler John P.,
Gee James C.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.22137
Subject(s) - kinematics , magnetic resonance imaging , artificial intelligence , computer science , computer vision , segmentation , preprocessor , image registration , displacement (psychology) , nuclear medicine , pattern recognition (psychology) , medicine , image (mathematics) , radiology , physics , psychology , classical mechanics , psychotherapist
Purpose: To propose and test the feasibility of a novel method for quantifying 3D regional pulmonary kinematics from hyperpolarized helium‐3 tagged MRI in human subjects using a tailored image processing pipeline and a recently developed nonrigid registration framework. Materials and Methods: Following image acquisition, inspiratory and expiratory tagged 3 He magnetic resonance (MR) images were preprocessed using various image filtering techniques to enhance the tag surfaces. Segmentation of the three orthogonal sets of tag planes in each lung produced distinct point‐set representations of the tag surfaces. Using these labeled point‐sets, deformation fields and corresponding strain maps were obtained via nonrigid point‐set registration. Kinematic analysis was performed on three volunteers. Results: Tag lines in inspiratory and expiratory images were coregistered producing a continuous 3D correspondence mapping. Average displacement and directional strains were calculated in three subjects in the inferior, mid, and superior portions of the right and left lungs. As expected, the predominant direction of displacements with expiration is from inferior to superior. Conclusion: Kinematic quantitation of pulmonary motion using tagged 3 He MRI is feasible using the applied image preprocessing filtering techniques and nonrigid point‐set registration. Potential benefits from regional pulmonary kinematic quantitation include the facilitation of diagnosis and local assessment of disease progression. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;31:1236–1241. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.