title: Magnetization transfer short inversion time inversion recovery enhanced 1H MRI of the human lung.
abstract: The unique characteristics of the human lung arising from low proton density and multiple air-tissue interfaces of the alveoli cause difficulty in 1H lung magnetic resonance imaging. In addition, the dominating signal from sources such as the thoracic muscle and subcutaneous fat hampers the visualization of the lung parenchyma. In this contribution, an efficient tissue suppression technique is presented which allows one to significantly enhance lung parenchyma visibility. A short inversion time inversion recovery (STIR) experiment combined with a magnetization transfer (MT) experiment was used for magnetization preparation in order to suppress the signal from muscle. A half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin-echo sequence was used as acquisition module. This approach was used to perform lung anatomical imaging in eight healthy human subjects and five patients with cystic fibrosis. The results obtained demonstrate that with MT-STIR approach high quality human lung images can be obtained and that this approach has the potential for the evaluation of lung pathologies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Physikalisches Institut, EP 5, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074, Würzburg, Germany. peja@physik.uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Jakob
authors.forename: Tungte
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schultz
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hebestreit
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hebestreit
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elfeber
authors.forename: Dietbert
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hahn
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haase
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016477:Artifacts; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D055590:Electromagnetic Phenomena / Q000379:methods*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008280:Magnetics; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology*; D011522:Protons; D011786:Quality Control; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013909:Thorax / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D011522:Protons