Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI
-
J Magn Reson Imaging · Feb 2000
Breath-hold 3D gradient-echo MR imaging of the lung parenchyma: evaluation of reproducibility of image quality in normals and preliminary observations in patients with disease.
This study evaluates the reproducibility and image quality of a three-dimensional (3D) gradient-echo sequence for imaging the lung parenchyma, with and without gadolinium administration, using a 2D spoiled gradient-echo sequence for comparison. Twenty patients without lung disease (normals) and five patients with lung disease (lung disease) underwent paired 2D and 3D gradient-echo sequences, without contrast (24 patients) and with contrast (18 patients). Images were retrospectively reviewed independently in a blinded fashion by two investigators. ⋯ Infiltrates, lung cancer, and pulmonary metastasis were better shown on the gadolinium-enhanced 3D gradient-echo sequences than on the other sequences. Breath-hold 3D gradient-echo imaging results in good image quality and negligible image artifacts and is superior to 2D spoiled gradient-echo imaging. Preliminary results in patients with disease appear promising.
-
J Magn Reson Imaging · Feb 2000
In vivo Hahn spin-echo decay (Hahn-T2) observation of regional changes in the time course of oleic acid lung injury.
We studied the time course of changes in the Hahn spin-echo decay (Hahn-T2) in lungs of spontaneously breathing living rats at 1 hour, 3 hours, and 7 days following oleic acid injection. Motion artifacts were minimized by using the motion-insensitive interleaved rapid line scan (ILS) imaging technique. Prior to injury, the lungs exhibited two resolvable exponential Hahn-T2 components. ⋯ The third, much longer, component is probably due to intraalveolar pulmonary edema. After 7 days the Hahn decay was similar to that observed before injury, probably reflecting resolution of the edema. Our data suggest that Hahn-T2 measurements can be used to characterize the time course and regional distribution of lung injury in living animals.