Katja Hueper1, 2, Jens Vogel-Claussen1, 2, Megha Parikh3, John HM Austin3, David A. Bluemke4, James Carr5, Thomas A. Goldstein6, Antoinette S. Gomes7, Eric A. Hoffman8, Joao AC Lima1, Wendy Post1, Martin Prince3, Kiang Liu5, Jan Skrok1, Karol Watson7, Jie Zheng9, Graham Barr3
1Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; 3Columbia University Medical Center, New York, United States; 4Radiology and Imaging Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States; 5Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States; 6Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; 7David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 8University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA, United States; 9Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, United States
Pulmonary vascular changes are known to occur in very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We hypothesized that pulmonary parenchymal blood flow and volume were decreased in mild-moderate COPD. Using pulmonary perfusion MRI we quantified perfusion parameters on a pixel-by-pixel basis in 100 patients with different severities of COPD and controls. Pulmonary parenchymal blood flow and volume were decreased in mild, moderate and severe COPD after adjustment for multiple parameters including the stroke volume, smoking status and packyears. These results support our hypothesis and demonstrate the value of pulmonary perfusion MRI for direct assessment of pulmonary vasculature in COPD.
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