Daniel Maxien1, Olaf Dietrich2,
Sven Thieme2, Maximilian Reiser2, Konstantin Nikolaou2
1Department of Clinical Radiology,
Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany; 2Department of Clinical
Radiology, Ludwig Maximilian University Munich, Germany
Oxygen-enhanced
MRI of the lung has proved its feasibility in studies with healthy
volunteers, but till now there is only limited experience in circumscribed
patient cohorts. We wanted to determine the value and feasibility of
oxygen-enhanced MRI in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Therefore we evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of oxygen-enhanced MRI
versus ventilation and perfusion scintigraphy. Furthermore, we made a quantitative
comparison of the relative signal enhancement in defect areas with the
relative signal enhancement in the whole lung to determine which signal
difference is needed for a reliable visual detection of diseased lung areas.