Olaf Dietrich1, Daniel Maxien, Sven Thieme,
Maximilian F. Reiser1, Konstantin Nikolaou
1Josef Lissner Laboratory for
Biomedical Imaging, Department of Clinical Radiology,
Dynamic
oxygen-enhanced MRI (O2-MRI) of the lung was applied in 11 healthy
volunteers and in 20 patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).
Data was evaluated pixelwise by fitting a piecewise exponential model
function with 4 parameters (relative enhancement, signal delay, wash-in/out
times) to the signal time course. The individual parameter distributions were
compared between volunteers and patients. The median values of the determined
parameters were similar in both groups, but the ranges (16th to 84th
percentile) of relative signal enhancement, signal delay and wash-out time
constant were significantly increased in PAH patients.