Automatic Assessment of UTE MRI High Signal Volume in the Lung for Pediatric Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

High signal volume (MR-HSV) obtained by Ultrashort Echo-Time (UTE) MRI has been shown to be associated with disease severity in adults with CF, but has yet to be investigated in pediatric CF patients. In this study, MR-HSV was automatically extracted from UTE MRI of pediatric CF (n=9) and healthy (n=4) participants. MR-HSV measurements were significantly increased in CF compared to health, and increased MR-HSV correlated with decreased lung function (ie. FEV1pp, FEV1/FVC). The findings in this work confirm that MR-HSV measurement is feasible in pediatric participants and may reflect disease severity associated with airway/parenchyma signal intensity abnormalities in CF.