Rapid single-breath hyperpolarized noble gas MRI-based biomarkers of airspace enlargement

BACKGROUND: Multi-b diffusion-weighted hyperpolarized-gas MRI measures pulmonary airspace-enlargement using apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) and mean-linear-intercepts (L PURPOSE: To develop single-breath 3D multi-b diffusion-weighted STUDY TYPE: Prospective. SUBJECTS: We evaluated 12 participants, including nine subjects (mean age = 69 ± 9) who were included in the retrospective experiment and three chronic pulmonary obstruction disease (COPD) patients (mean age = 81 ± 6) who participated in the prospective study. FIELD STRENGTH: A whole-body 3 T 2D/3D fast gradient recall echo (FGRE) sequence. ASSESSMENT: Hyperpolarized STATISTICAL TESTS: Multivariate analysis of variance, independent t-tests and voxel-by-voxel basis difference test. RESULTS: For the retrospectively undersampled DATA CONCLUSION: This is a proof-of-concept demonstration of accelerated (7×) morphometry that shows that less cost- and time-efficient multibreath methods that lead to variability and patient fatigue may be avoided in the future. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 5 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018