Inflammation Assessment in the Lungs of LPS-Challenged Rodents: Comparison Between Radial Ultra-Short Echo Time (UTE) and Cartesian MR Imaging

Magdalena Zurek¹, Laura Carrero-Gonzalez^2,3, Selina Bucher², Thomas Kaulisch², Detlef Stiller², Yannick Crmillieux¹

A radial ultra short-echo time (UTE) sequence has been shown to be appropriate in pulmonary imaging due to its robustness against motion and its improved image resolution. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of edema detection using two protocols based on conventional-Cartesian and UTE radial imaging approaches. Despite degraded image quality in case of Cartesian images due to the motion, similar inflammation extent was found for both approaches. The UTE technique, applied under free-breathing conditions, will certainly prove to be quite useful in routine MR investigations applied on models of lung diseases associated with inflammation or mucous hypersecretion.