Abstract #0039

Ishii M, Kadlecek S, MacDuffie Woodburn J, Hammond F, Gefter W, Yu J, Emami K, Rajaei S, Vahdat V, Rizi R, Lipson D

Many lung diseases manifest with alterations in the pulmonary vasculature bed. We hypothesized that we could non-invasively differentiate pulmonary disease caused by vasculopathy, from normal subjects, based on differences in regional PAO2 and ventilation/perfusion using helium-3 MRI. Patients with vasculopathy have higher alveolar oxygen concentrations than normal subjects because of decreased uptake of oxygen from the alveolar space. Elevations in regional VA/Q represent an increased number of lung units with high ventilation/perfusion ratios due to vascular destruction. Hyperpolarized helium-3 MRI may non-invasively differentiate normal subjects from those with vasculopathy based on differences in regional PAO2 and regional ventilation/perfusion relationships.