Masaru Ishii1,
Hooman Hamedani2, Stephen J. Kadlececk2, Kiarash Emami2,
Yi Xin2, Milton Rossman3, Rahim Rizi2
1Otolarynology,
Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Department
of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 3Pulmonary,
allergy and Critical Care Division, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
PA, United States
In this work we present the first large-scale short-term lung gas exchange imaging reproducibility study using Hyperpolarized 3He. We estimated the short-time reproducibility of regional pAO2 measurements in asymptomatic smokers and non-smokers and found that the repeatability is similar in two groups and is a strong function of measurement noise. We also showed that asymptomatic smokers, while appearing normal from the physical exam and PFT standpoint, show demonstrable difference in temporal and spatial imaging characteristics.
Keywords