Quantitative pulmonary perfusion in patients with COVID-19 using dynamic contrast enhanced MRI at 0.55T

COVID-19 infection has been reported to cause pulmonary perfusion defects associated with pulmonary embolism and infiltrates. We used quantitative dynamic contrast enhanced 0.55T MRI, with pharmacokinetic modelling, to monitor lung perfusion longitudinally in 139 patients with COVID-19. We observed significant associations between disease severity and perfusion during the convalescent phase (91-365d post symptom onset); and between abnormal perfusion during the acute phase (0-40d) and low pulmonary function later during recovery. Quantitative pulmonary perfusion measured by MRI may be a useful metric to study patients with COVID-19 infection, and early results suggest long-term perfusion abnormalities in patients with severe disease.