Prospective study evaluates 0.55-T lung MRI performance in pulmonary sarcoidosis, suggesting complementary insights without radiation.
Key Points
This research aims to determine the feasibility and diagnostic performance of 0.55-T lung MRI for assessing pulmonary sarcoidosis while exploring correlations with pulmonary function tests.
Prospective study including 15 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis and 30 healthy volunteers.
Participants underwent 0.55-T lung MRI for morphology and functional metrics, with CT as the reference standard.
Correlations with pulmonary function testing were analyzed for diagnostic performance.
MRI showed 86% sensitivity for detecting consolidations, 67% for nodules, and 70% for ground-glass opacities, but only 29% for reticulations and 27% for traction bronchiectases.
Functional MRI indicated significantly higher ventilation defect percentage (VDP), perfusion defect percentage (QDP), and ventilation-perfusion overlap (VQO) in patients compared to controls (all p < 0.01).
Strong correlations were identified between VDP and RV/TLC ratio (r = 0.90, p < 0.001) and between QDP and FEV1 (r = 0.63, p = 0.01).