Yoshiharu Ohno1,
2, Shinichiro Seki3, Mizuho Nishio1, 2,
Hisanobu Koyama3, Takeshi Yoshikawa1, 2,
Sumiaki Matsumoto1, 2, Nobukazu Aoyama4,
Katsusuke Kyotani4, Makoto Obara5, Marc van Cauteren5,
Hideaki Kawamitsu4, Satoru Takahashi, 34, Kazuro
Sugimura3
1Advanced
Biomedical Imaging Research Center, Kobe University Graduate School of
Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 2Division of Functional and
Diagnostic Imaging Research, Department of Radiology, Kobe University
Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 3Division of
Radiology, Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of
Medicine, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 4Center forRadiology and Radiation
Oncology, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 5Philips
Healthcare, Tokyo, Japan
Oxygen (O2) -enhanced MRI as well as hyperpolarized noble gas MR imaging have been proposed as useful procedures for evaluation of morphological changes or regional pulmonary functional changes. However, the literature shows no publications dealing with prospective and direct comparison of the capability of quantitatively assessed CT and of O2-enhanced MRI for pulmonary functional loss assessment and clinical stage classification in asthmatics. The purpose of the study reported here was to prospectively and directly compare the efficacy of O2-enhanced MRI and quantitative CT for functional loss assessment and clinical stage classification in asthmatics.