An investigative lung MRI that uses inhaled perfluoropropane gas has demonstrated an ability to identify damaged regions of the lung in patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as well as lung transplant recipients, two recently published studies reported.
The technique, called dynamic fluorine 19-MRI (19F-MRI), can enable clinicians to evaluate lung function and regional defects in the lung earlier on than existing methods, Peter Thelwall, PhD, director for the Center for In Vivo Imaging at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, told Medscape Medical News.
“While this is a research tool at the moment, there is a pathway to the clinic,” Thelwall said. He noted that existing approaches to assessing lung function with MRI require using hyperpolarized 129xenon (129Xe) or hyperpolarized gas.
“Those gases require a special magnetic preparation step that has to be done on site, so you need equipment and expertise beyond the MRI scanners that we’re using, whereas we’re able to buy medical-grade perfluoropropane and have the patient inhale it. The barrier to entry of doing really good lung function imaging is a little bit lower with the approach we’re taking,” he said.
Finding ‘Patchy Ventilation’
The technique has the ability to evaluate changes in regions of the lung, what Thelwall called “patchy ventilation,” in patients with lung disease. “For example, when we scan a patient as they use their asthma medication, we can see how much of their lungs and which parts of their lungs are better able to move air in and out with each breath,” he said.
Thelwall’s group at Newcastle University published two recent studies on the 19F-MRI method: One assessing lung function in patients with asthma and COPD and the other reporting on its use in lung transplant recipients with and without chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD).
“We’re hopeful we can capture subtle regional early changes with an imaging-based method that are invisible on current clinica