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

用于肺部的成像方法的最新进展包括吸入气体提供独特的磁共振成像(MRI)信号或对比度的方法。这些新的磁共振成像方法基于3He和129Xe等稀有气体的磁化(或超极化)，并已在少数成像研究中心(包括我们的研究中心)率先用于测量肺功能，而到目前为止，这些方法是不可能的。传统的肺功能和力学观点来自简单的两室模型和测量，这些模型和测量是通过测量固定在切除肺气管末端的嘴或管子上的压力和流量来开发的。尽管这些传统的方法很重要，但不幸的是，它还不可能结合区域肺信息来更好地开发肺功能和力学模型。为了直接解决这个几十年来的问题，我们建议将对呼吸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，利用来自3He和129Xe磁共振图像的肺组织和气道功能和结构定量测量在哮喘和COPD等阻塞性肺疾病以及健康志愿者中生成和开发健康和患病肺的生物力学的稳健数学模型。这种方法提供了一种结合、测试和验证局部活体成像测量以生成新的肺微机械模型的方法。

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.