Double-echo Oxygen Enhanced MRI at 1.5 T correlates with clinical lung function in CF patients

This study presents the first results from a population with cystic fibrosis (CF) of a novel, easy-to-implement, multi-slice, free breathing OE-MRI acquisition method based on measuring R2* changes in the lung with varying level of oxygen delivered to the patients. The oxygen ventilated volume fraction obtained presents a very good correlation with lung clearance index (LCI) obtained by multiple breath N2 washout. LCI is a marker of overall lung ventilation inhomogeneity, which has been shown to be a sensitive marker of lung disease severity in CF, particularly in the early stage of the disease when spirometry outcomes are normal.