Abstract #1191

Proton Density and R2* Estimation of Neonatal Lung Parenchyma During Free Breathing with UTE MRI

Andrew Hahn¹, Nara Higano^2,3, Jean Tkach⁴, Laura Walkup², Robert Thomen², Xuefeng Cao^2,5, Stephanie Merhar⁶, Jason Woods^2,3, and Sean Fain¹

¹Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States, ²Center for Pulmonary Imaging Research, Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Department of Radiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, United States, ³Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States, ⁴Imaging Research Center, Department of Radiology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, ⁵Department of Physics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States, ⁶Perinatal Institute, Division of Neonatology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, United States

The majority of patients in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) have pulmonary morbidities, yet little is known about the underlying parenchymal structure. We quantify parenchymal proton density and R₂^* in the lungs of quiet breathing, non-sedated neonates in the NICU using a multi-echo 3D radial UTE MRI. Results indicate that lung proton density decreases as expected with lung inflation, while R₂^* increases. A positive relationship between gravitational dependence and tissue density is also apparent, while R₂^* decreases in more gravitationally dependent regions. Overall, our findings support a negative relationship between tissue density and R₂^* in the neonatal lung.

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