The clinical use of lung MRI in cystic fibrosis: what, now, how?

The clinical use of lung MRI in cystic fibrosis: what, now, how? Chest. 2020 Dec 17;: Authors: Dournes G, Walkup LL, Benlala I, Willmering MM, Macey J, Bui S, Laurent F, Woods JC Abstract To assess airway and lung parenchymal damage non-invasively in cystic fibrosis (CF), chest MRI has been historically out of the scope of routine clinical imaging due to technical difficulties such as the low proton density and respiratory and cardiac motion. However, technological breakthroughs have recently emerged to dramatically improve lung MRI quality (including signal-to-noise ratio, resolution, speed, contrast). At the same time, novel treatments have changed the landscape of CF clinical care. In this contemporary context, there is a recent consensus that lung MRI can be used clinically to assess CF in a radiation-free manner and enable quantification of lung disease severity. MRI can now achieve 3-dimensional, high-resolution morphological imaging, and beyond this morphological information, MRI may offer the ability to differentiate active inflammation versus scarring tissue sensitively. MRI could also characterize various forms of inflammation for early guidance of treatment. Moreover, functional information from MRI can assess regional, small airway disease with sensitivity to detect small changes even in patients with mild CF. Finally, automated quantification methods have emerged to support the conventional visual analyses for more objec...
Source: Chest - Category: Respiratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Chest Source Type: research