title: Functional MRI using Fourier decomposition of lung signal: reproducibility of ventilation- and perfusion-weighted imaging in healthy volunteers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the reproducibility of Fourier decomposition (FD) based ventilation- and perfusion-weighted lung MRI.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixteen healthy volunteers were examined on a 1.5 T whole-body MR-scanner with 4-6 sets of coronal slices over the chest volume with a non-contrast enhanced steady-state free precession sequence. The identical protocol was repeated after 24h. Reconstructed perfusion- and ventilation-weighted images were obtained through non-rigid registration and FD post-processing of images. Analysis of signal in segmented regions of interest was performed for both native and post-processed data. Two blinded chest radiologists rated image quality of perfusion- and ventilation-weighted images using a 3-point scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Reproducibility of signal between the two time points was very good with intra-class correlation coefficients of 0.98, 0.94 and 0.86 for native, perfusion- and ventilation-weighted images, respectively. Perfusion- and ventilation-weighted images were of overall good quality with proportions of diagnostic images of 87-95% and 69-75%, respectively. Lung signal decreased from posterior to anterior slices with image quality of ventilation-weighted images in anterior areas rated worse than in posterior or perfusion-weighted images. Inter- and intra-observer agreement of image quality was good for perfusion and ventilation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study demonstrates high reproducibility of ventilation- and perfusion-weighted FD lung MRI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 110, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany. mathieu.lederlin@chu-bordeaux.fr
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lederlin
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bauman
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eichinger
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dinkel
authors.forename: Mathilde
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brault
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Biederer
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Puderbach
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008168:Lung / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055420:Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult