Deirdre Maria McGrath1, Josephine H. Naish1, Simon S. Young2, Lars E. Olsson3, Charles E. Hutchinson1, Jorgen Vestbo4,5, John C. Waterton1,6, Chris J. Taylor1, Geoff JM Parker1
1Imaging Science and Biomedical Engineering, School of Cancer and Imaging Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; 2AstraZeneca, Loughborough, UK; 3AstraZeneca, Mlndal, Sweden; 4School of Translational Medicine, Respiratory Research Group, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK; 5Department of Cardiology & Respiratory Medicine, Hvidovre University Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark; 6AstraZeneca, Macclesfield, UK
A novel compartmental model analysis of oxygen enhanced MRI (OE-MRI) is proven more sensitive to the presence of early stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in smokers than spirometry and the OE-MRI parameters used by previous workers. Our model provides biomarkers of ventilation, diffusion of oxygen at the alveoli, and alveolar capillary perfusion and we compare these with biomarkers obtained from dynamic contrast enhanced MRI data. These biomarkers identified the effects of smoking in a group of apparently disease-free smokers as compared with non-smokers, and have therefore the potential to improve the understanding, diagnosis and monitoring of respiratory deficits.
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