WS08.2 Objective diagnosis of early structural lung disease on chest CT: assessment of airway and artery dimensions in young children with cystic fibrosis

Abstract

retrospectively sort the data acquired during free breathing to obtain whole-lung coverage with a high isotropic spatial resolution. Methods: A three-dimensional UTE MRI sequence was used to acquire data during free breathing in 4 CF patients with an isotropic spatial resolution of 1.3mm. A self-gating method was used to reconstruct motion-suppressed images at both end-expiration and end-inspiration. MRI datasets were compared with CT datasets in 2 cases. Results: The average data acquisition duration was 15±1min. Bronchiectasis could be well identified with the new MRI technique. Location and size were correlated with the findings of a CT examination performed within 24 hours in one patient. In another patient, focal areas of hypointensity with a lobular shape were observed in the lung background that were spatially correlated with hypoattenuated areas in CT images acquired 2 years prior to the MRI examination. Conclusion: In this preliminary report, encouraging correlations between UTE MRI and CT were observed for the assessment of proximal and small airway diseases without requiring any breath holding or gating hardware for MRI examination.