In vivo lung morphometry with accelerated hyperpolarized (3) He diffusion MRI: a preliminary study.

PURPOSE: Parallel imaging can be used to reduce imaging time and to increase the spatial coverage in hyperpolarized gas magnetic resonance imaging of the lung. In this proof-of-concept study, we investigate the effects of parallel imaging on the morphometric measurement of lung microstructure using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging with hyperpolarized (3) He.
METHODS: Fully sampled and under-sampled multi-b diffusion data were acquired from human subjects using an 8-channel (3) He receive coil. A parallel imaging reconstruction technique (generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions [GRAPPA]) was used to reconstruct under-sampled k-space data. The morphometric results of the generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions-reconstructed data were compared with the results of fully sampled data for three types of subjects: healthy volunteers, mild, and moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.
RESULTS: Morphometric measurements varied only slightly at mild acceleration factors. The results were largely well preserved compared to fully sampled data for different lung conditions.
CONCLUSION: Parallel imaging, given sufficient signal-to-noise ratio, provides a reliable means to accelerate hyperpolarized-gas magnetic resonance imaging with no significant difference in the measurement of lung morphometry from the fully sampled images. GRAPPA is a promising technique to significantly reduce imaging time and/or to improve the spatial coverage for the morphometric measurement with hyperpolarized gases.