Abstract #4105

Normalized T1 Relaxation Time Mapping for Improved Lung Imaging in Cystic Fibrosis Patients

Lan Lu¹, Elliott C. Dasenbrook², David Weaver², Peter M. Jakob³, Mitchell L. Drumm², Michael W. Konstan², Chris A. Flask¹

¹Department of Radiology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States; ²Department of Pediatrics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States; ³Department of Physics, University of Wurzburg, Wurzburg, Germany

We have developed a method to normalize lung T1 relaxation time assessments as an biomarker for early-stage lung disease in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. The T1 relaxation times were normalized by the mean T1 values in the central lung regions to limit the effects of anatomic variation. Normalized T1 assessments were obtained for six CF patients and five healthy controls. The normalized T1 relaxation time assessments showed reduced variation in comparison to conventional T1 relaxation times and differentiated early-stage CF patients from healthy controls while gold-standard pulmonary function tests did not suggesting greater sensitivity of this new MRI method.