A number of techniques for analysis of hyperpolarized gas (HPG) images have emerged and demonstrated sensitivity to lung disease severity. However, the precise extent of lung function decline due to specific pathologies associated with obstructive lung disease has not been established. Here we have performed HPG 129Xe analysis using 3 common methods from the literature (mean-anchored, percentile-anchored, and k-means methods) in order to evaluate correlations with structural pathologies identified in ultra-short echo-time (UTE) images. The presence of bronchiectasis and mucus plugging correlated best with whole-lung ventilation defect percentage (VDP). Consolidation and air-trapping demonstrated weaker (though still significant) correlation with VDP.
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