XeBox-E10 Gas Polarizer for Functional MRI of Pediatric Lung Disease

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案支持创建儿科患者人群中稳健和安全的肺磁共振成像（MRI）所需的基础设施。儿科肺部疾病的评估和治疗具有挑战性，因为现有的测量疾病严重程度的工具是不够的。肺功能测定法，包括婴儿肺功能测试（PFT），已被证明不足以评估轻度肺部疾病，特别是在囊性纤维化（CF）中，尽管使用电离辐射，X射线CT和胸部X线摄影仍发挥着越来越大的作用。支气管肺发育不良（BPD）也是一种早产儿疾病，至少有30%的出生体重<1000 g的32周前出生的婴儿受到影响。在BPD的动物模型中，肺的肺泡化和血管化被阻止，导致组织不良的气体交换单元。然而，BPD和其他早期肺部疾病的潜在结构和功能变化的非侵入性评估不容易在不使用灵敏度和空间分辨率有限的基于X射线或放射性核素的成像方法的情况下进行。儿童哮喘是另一种更普遍的疾病，由于儿童难以进行必要的呼吸操作以及对早期疾病进展不敏感，因此常规肺功能测试对其不敏感。肺部MRI的最新进展使儿童哮喘通气功能成像，使用新的快速MRI方法，在单次推注超极化3 He气体，一种惰性气体的供应有限。使用129 He（大气中的一种痕量气体）的类似进展已应用于成人哮喘和COPD的肺部MRI，并有望成为3 He的更广泛替代品。此外，放射状MRI的进步显著改善了以前未检测到的来自肺结构的水质子信号，以可视化实质和气道结构以及组织灌注。因此，第一次临床上可行的MRI协议能够成像肺结构和功能s可用。本提案的总体目标是将本方案转化为儿科肺部疾病的临床研究和验证。该提案的具体目标是：1。在威斯康星州大学放射科开发儿科肺部MRI的临床基础设施，包括用于多核光谱的新型MR 750 w（带8个接收器通道）上的升级硬件、成本和时间效率高的商用129 μ m气体偏振器，以实现气体的安全生产和管理，和儿科胸部RF线圈，设计用于在自由呼吸条件下对水质子和129 μ mol/L气体进行成像，以进行结构-功能比较，以及2.将通气/灌注MRI应用于哮喘、CF和BPD早期疾病的临床研究调查，同时支持正在进行的成人肺部疾病研究并扩展到新的机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal supports the creation of the infrastructure required for robust and safe pulmonary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the pediatric patient population. Pediatric lung disease is challenging to evaluate and treat because existing tools for measuring disease severity are inadequate. Spirometry, including infant pulmonary function tests (PFTs), has been shown to be inadequate for the assessment of mild lung disease, especially in cystic fibrosis (CF) where X-ray CT and chest radiography have played an increasing role despite their use of ionizing radiation. Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), also diagnosed based on abnormal radiographic findings is a disease of prematurity, affecting at least 30% of babies born before 32 weeks with birth weights <1000g. In animal models of BPD, alveolarization and vascularization of the lung is arrested, resulting in poorly organized gas exchange units. However, non-invasive assessment of underlying structural and functional changes in BPD and other early lung diseases is not easily performed without using X-ray or radionuclide-based imaging methods that have limited sensitivity and spatial resolution. Childhood asthma is another, more prevalent disease, for which conventional lung function tests are insensitive due to the child's difficulty performing the necessary respiratory maneuvers and their insensitivity to early disease progression. Recent advances in pulmonary MRI have enabled functional imaging of ventilation in childhood asthma using novel fast MRI methods during single bolus delivery of hyperpolarized 3He gas, an inert noble gas of limited supply. Similar advances using 129Xe, a trace gas in the atmosphere, have been applied to lung MRI in adult asthma and COPD and promise a more widely available alternative to 3He. In addition, advances in radial MRI have markedly improved water proton signal from lung structures not previously detected to visualize parenchymal and airway structures and tissue perfusion. Thus, for the first time a clinically viable MRI protocol capable of imaging lung structure and function s available. The overall goal of this proposal is to translate this protocol into the clinic for reserch and validation in pediatric lung diseases. The Specific Aims of the proposal are: 1. To develop the clinical infrastructure for pediatric lung MRI in the University of Wisconsin Department of Radiology inclusive of upgraded hardware on a new MR750w for multi- nuclear spectroscopy with 8 receiver channels, a cost and time-efficient commercial 129Xe gas polarizer to enable safe production and administration of gas, and a pediatric chest RF-coil designed for imaging both water protons and 129Xe gas under free breathing conditions for structure-function comparison, and 2. To apply ventilation/perfusion MRI to clinical research investigations of early disease in asthma, CF, and BPD, while supporting ongoing studies of adult lung disease and expansion to new opportunities.