Lung magnetic resonance imaging – an update

Abstract

•. MRI techniques have been developed for the imaging of pulmonary vascular disease, pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer and for perfusion and ventilation studies. •. Patients with chronic lung diseases, who require repeated investigations, are most likely to benefit as these techniques are safe and do not carry ionising radiation burden. •. Magnetic resonance angiography could become the preferred method of imaging in patients with chronic pulmonary vascular diseases. Furthermore, this technique may replace CT in therapeutic trials for the assessment of thrombus resolution. •. Ventilation and functional MRI, using hyperpolarised noble gases, provides the opportunity to non-invasively study pulmonary physiology and pathophysiology. The method has potential for the assessment of therapy effects in patients of all ages. Magnetic resonance imaging is likely to compete in particular areas of chest imaging, including repeated studies in patients where ionising radiation is a long-term problem and in patients w...