• Yoshiharu Ohno, Mizuho Nishio, Hisanobu Koyama, Takeshi Yoshikawa, Sumiaki Matsumoto, Shinichiro Seki, Makoto Obara, Marc van Cauteren, Masaya Takahashi, and Kazuro Sugimura.
• Advanced Biomedical Imaging Research Center, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; Division of Functional and Diagnostic Imaging Research, Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2014 Apr 1; 39 (4): 988-97.

PurposeTo assess the influence of ultrashort TE (UTE) intervals on pulmonary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with UTEs (UTE-MRI) for pulmonary functional loss assessment and clinical stage classification of smokers.Materials And MethodsA total 60 consecutive smokers (43 men and 17 women; mean age 70 years) with and without COPD underwent thin-section multidetector row computed tomography (MDCT), UTE-MRI, and pulmonary functional measurements. For each smoker, UTE-MRI was performed with three different UTE intervals (UTE-MRI A: 0.5 msec, UTE-MRI B: 1.0 msec, UTE-MRI C: 1.5 msec). By using the GOLD guidelines, the subjects were classified as: "smokers without COPD," "mild COPD," "moderate COPD," and "severe or very severe COPD." Then the mean T2* value from each UTE-MRI and CT-based functional lung volume (FLV) were correlated with pulmonary function test. Finally, Fisher's PLSD test was used to evaluate differences in each index among the four clinical stages.ResultsEach index correlated significantly with pulmonary function test results (P < 0.05). CT-based FLV and mean T2* values obtained from UTE-MRI A and B showed significant differences among all groups except between "smokers without COPD" and "mild COPD" groups (P < 0.05).ConclusionUTE-MRI has a potential for management of smokers and the UTE interval is suggested as an important parameter in this setting.Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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