Elaine Chia1, Kiarash Emami1, John MacDuffie-Woodburn1, Stephen Kadlecek1, Stephen Pickup1, Jiangsheng Yu, Masaru Ishii1,2, Jianliang Zhu3, Michael Stephen4, Rahim R. Rizi1
1Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 2Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery,, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 3Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 44Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Division, University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Preliminary results show that regional MRI measurements, 3He ADC and fractional ventilation, are sensitive metrics to elastase-induced changes in rat lungs, surpassing the sensitivity of the majority of the examined PFT measurements. While PFT measurements can indicate the presence of emphysema, MRI measurements are more sensitive to changes in the lung due to the progression of the disease. Purely regional MRI analyses can allow determination between healthy and elastase cohorts.
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