Yogesh K. Mariappan1, Bryan L. Striemer1, David L. Levin1, Robert Vassallo2, Richard L. Ehman1, Kiaran P. McGee1
1Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States; 2Pulmonary and critical care medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States
Our overall goal is to develop magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) for the in vivo assessment of human lung. We have recently demonstrated that lung shear stiffness can be spatially resolved in vivo using a 1H pulmonary MRE pulse sequence. The objective of this work was to validate this technique by measuring lung stiffness changes at four different states of respiration including residual volume (RV), total lung capacity (TLC) and two intermediate states in 5 healthy volunteers. In all volunteers shear stiffness increased from RV to TLC and correlated with volume dependent changes in lung stiffness.