Yoshiharu Ohno1, 2, Mizuho Nishio1, Hisanobu Koyama1, 2, Masaya Takahashi3, Takeshi Yoshikawa1, Sumiaki Matsumoto1, Daisuke Takenaka1, Katsusuke Kyotani2
1Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 2Radiology, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 3Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 4Philips Electronics Japan, Tokyo, Japan; 5Philips Healthcare Asia Pacific, Tokyo, Japan
CT is most widely used for radiological assessment of disease severity in CTDs. Recently, we have tried to determine the utility of regional T2* measurement in the lung for assessment of pulmonary diseases. We hypothesized that T2* measurement in the lung at 3 T MR system has a potential role to play as a method for assessment of pulmonary functional loss and disease severity in CTD patients. The purpose of this study was to determine the capability of pulmonary MRI with ultra-short TEs (UTEs) in a 3 T system for pulmonary functional and disease severity assessments in patients with CTD.