Lung micromechanical modelling using in vivo regional pulmonary functional magnetic resonance imaging

最近肺成像方法的进展包括吸入气体，提供独特的磁共振成像（MRI）信号或对比的方法。这些新颖的MRI方法基于稀有气体（如3He和129Xe）的磁化（或超极化），并已在少数成像研究中心（包括我们的中心）率先用于测量肺功能，这在以前是不可能的。传统的肺功能和力学观点来源于简单的2室模型和测量，使用口压和流量测量或固定在切除肺气管末端的管子。尽管这些传统方法很重要，但不幸的是，还不可能将区域肺信息纳入到更好地开发肺功能和力学模型中。为了直接解决这个存在了几十年的问题，我们建议将气道和空域结构和功能的肺成像测量纳入现有的肺微观力学模型，并开发新的模型，并使用区域功能成像信息对这些模型进行测试。因此，我们提出的研究计划的总体目标是开发新的方法，利用阻塞性肺疾病（如哮喘和COPD）以及健康志愿者的3He和129Xe MR图像获得的肺组织和气道功能和结构定量测量，以生成和开发健康和患病肺部生物力学的稳健数学模型。这种方法提供了一种整合、测试和验证区域体内成像测量的方法，以产生新的肺微观力学模型。

Recent advances in imaging methods dedicated to the lung include methods that involve inhaled gases that provide a unique magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal or contrast. These novel MRI methods as based on the magnetization (or hyperpolarization) of noble gases such as 3He and 129Xe and have been pioneered at a handful of imaging research centres (including ours) for measurements of lung function that until now have never been possible. The traditional view of lung function and mechanics has been derived from simple 2 compartment models and measurements developed using pressure and flow measurements at the mouth or tubes fixed to the end of the trachea of excised lungs. Despite the importance of these traditional approaches, it has unfortunately, not yet been possible to incorporate regional lung information to better develop lung models of function and mechanics. To directly address this decades-old problem, we propose to incorporate lung imaging measurements of airway and airspace structure and function into existing models of lung micromechanics and to develop new models and test these using regional functional imaging information. Therefore the overarching objective of our proposed research program is to develop new ways to use lung tissue and airway functional and structural quantitative measurements derived from 3He and 129Xe MR images in obstructive lung disease like asthma and COPD as well as healthy volunteers to generate and develop robust mathematical models of the biomechanics in healthy and diseased lung. This approach provides a way to incorporate, test and validate regional in vivo imaging measurements to generate novel micromechanical models of the lung.