Chest
Original ResearchEvaluation of Asthma With Hyperpolarized Helium-3 MRI: Correlation With Clinical Severity and Spirometry
Section snippets
Methods and Materials
Patients with asthma and age-matched normal control subjects from 16 to 35 years old were enrolled. A maximum age of 35 years was selected to maximize confidence in the diagnosis of asthma since older adults may have COPD, a disease that can mimic asthma. Asthmatics had to carry the diagnosis of having asthma as determined by their primary physician. Further characterization of the disease with bronchodilator, methacholine challenge, or sputum induction was not performed. Patients using inhaled
Results
Seventy-six subjects (58 asthmatics [mild-intermittent, n = 13; mild-persistent, n = 13; moderate-persistent, n = 20; and severe-persistent, n = 12; female/male gender, n = 45/n = 13; age range, 14 to 37 years; mean, 23.4 years]) and 18 healthy volunteers (female/male gender, n = 14/n = 4; age range, 14 to 36 years; mean, 23.6 years) underwent H3HeMR and were able to inhale the gas and hold their breath without difficulty. There were no significant differences in age, height, weight, and
Discussion
In this study, it was found that the number of the ventilation defects in asthmatics correlated with the severity of disease as determined by clinical symptoms and spirometry. However, there were asthmatics, including severe asthmatics, who had large numbers of ventilation defects but normal spirometry results. Others had severe symptoms but few ventilation defects, and had normal or near-normal spirometry results. Clearly in these patients there was discordance between clinical symptoms and
Acknowledgment
We thank Doris Harding, RN, BSN, Joanne C. Gersbach, RN, BSN, Jaime Mata, PhD, John Christopher, RT(R)(MR), and Adam P. Juersivich, BS, for their valuable contributions.
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Cited by (0)
This work was performed at the University of Virginia.
This work was funded by National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (grant RO1 HL66479) and by contributions from the Commonwealth of Virginia Technology Research Fund (grant IN2002–01) and Siemens Medical Solutions.
Dr. Mugler receives research funding from and has been a consultant for Siemens Medical Solutions. None of the other authors had involvement in any organization with a direct financial, intellectual, or other interest in the subject of this article.
Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (www.chestjournal.org/misc/reprints.shtml).