In Vivo 1H/19F UTE Imaging of Lung Disease

Eriko Yoshimaru¹, Julio Crdenas-Rodrguez², Mark D. Pagel², Robert Erickson³, ⁴, Theodore Trouard¹

Diagnosis and treatment of many illnesses could be improved by MRI of lung inflammation and functional compromise. However, such imaging using traditional MRI methods is difficult. Recently, 19F MRI of perfluorocarbon emulsions have shown sensitivity to the presence of macrophages and monocytes in areas of inflammation. In this work, we present 1H and 19F spin-echo and Ultrashort TE (UTE) MRI to obtain 2D and 3D volumetric images of mouse models of cystic fibrosis (CF) and Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease. The UTE techniques used allow for motion insensitive 3D imaging of lung tissue and inflammation-associated perflorocarbon accumulation.