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Direct comparison of 129 X e diffusion measurements with quantitative histology in human lungs
Author(s) -
Thomen Robert P.,
Quirk James D.,
Roach David,
EganRojas Tiffany,
Ruppert Kai,
Yusen Roger D.,
Altes Talissa A.,
Yablonskiy Dmitriy A.,
Woods Jason C.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.26120
Subject(s) - histology , copd , lung , effective diffusion coefficient , medicine , diffusion mri , nuclear medicine , pathology , idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis , biomarker , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , chemistry , biochemistry
Purpose Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an irreversible lung disease characterized by small‐airway obstruction and alveolar‐airspace destruction. Hyperpolarized 129 Xe diffusion MRI of lung is a promising biomarker for assessing airspace enlargement, but has yet to be validated by direct comparison to lung histology. Here we have compared diffusion measurements of hyperpolarized (HP) 129 Xe in explanted lungs to regionally matched morphological measures of airspace size. Methods Explanted lungs from five COPD patients and two idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) patients were imaged using MRI with hyperpolarized 129 Xe using a two‐b‐value gradient‐echo diffusion sequence, and 34 histological samples were taken from these lungs for quantitative histology. Mean‐linear‐intercept (L m ) was compared with spatially matched measures of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) from 129 Xe MRI. Results The mean ADC from COPD lung samples was 0.071 ± 0.011 cm 2 /s, and for IPF lungs was 0.033 ± 0.001 cm 2 /s ( P < 10 −15 between groups). The mean L m in COPD samples was 0.076 ± 0.027 cm and 0.041 ± 0.004 cm in IPF ( P = 2.7 × 10 −7 between groups). The Pearson‐correlation between ADC and L m measurements was r = 0.59. Conclusions Diffusion MRI of HP 129 Xe quantifies regional airspace enlargement in COPD. 129 Xe ADC showed much less overlap between groups than quantitative histology, consistent with our past experience with 3 He diffusion MRI in COPD. Magn Reson Med 77:265–272, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.