Automated MR-based lung volume segmentation in population-based whole-body MR imaging: correlation with clinical characteristics, pulmonary function testing and obstructive lung disease

Müller, Jan; Karrasch, Stefan ; Lorbeer, Roberto; Ivanovska, Tatyana; Pomschar, Andreas; Kunz, Wolfgang G.; Kruechten, Ricarda von; Peters, Annette ; Bamberg, Fabian; Schulz, Holger and Schlett, Christopher L. (2019): Automated MR-based lung volume segmentation in population-based whole-body MR imaging: correlation with clinical characteristics, pulmonary function testing and obstructive lung disease. In: European Radiology, Vol. 29, No. 3: pp. 1595-1606

Abstract

ObjectivesWhole-body MR imaging is increasingly utilised;although for lung dedicated sequences are often not included, the chest is typically imaged. Our objective was to determine the clinical utility of lung volumes derived from non-dedicated MRI sequences in the population-based KORA-FF4 cohort study.Methods400 subjects (56.4 9.2 years, 57.6% males) underwent whole-body MRI including a coronal T1-DIXON-VIBE sequence in inspiration breath-hold, originally acquired for fat quantification. Based on MRI, lung volumes were derived using an automated framework and related to common predictors, pulmonary function tests (PFT;spirometry and pulmonary gas exchange, n = 214) and obstructive lung disease.ResultsMRI-based lung volume was 4.0 1.1 L, which was 64.8 14.9% of predicted total lung capacity (TLC) and 124.4 27.9% of functional residual capacity. In multivariate analysis, it was positively associated with age, male, current smoking and height. Among PFT indices, MRI-based lung volume correlated best with TLC, alveolar volume and residual volume (RV;r = 0.57 each), while it was negatively correlated to FEV1/FVC (r = 0.36) and transfer factor for carbon monoxide (r = 0.16). Combining the strongest PFT parameters, RV and FEV1/FVC remained independently and incrementally associated with MRI-based lung volume ( = 0.50, p = 0.04 and = - 0.02, p = 0.02, respectively) explaining 32% of the variability. For the identification of subjects with obstructive lung disease, height-indexed MRI-based lung volume yielded an AUC of 0.673-0.654.Conclusion Lung volume derived from non-dedicated whole-body MRI is independently associated with RV and FEV1/FVC. Furthermore, its moderate accuracy for obstructive lung disease indicates that it may be a promising tool to assess pulmonary health in whole-body imaging when PFT is not available.Key Points Although whole-body MRI often does not include dedicated lung sequences, lung volume can be automatically derived using dedicated segmentation algorithms Lung volume derived from whole-body MRI correlates with typical predictors and risk factors of respiratory function including smoking and represents about 65% of total lung capacity and 125% of the functional residual capacity Lung volume derived from whole-body MRI is independently associated with residual volume and the ratio of forced expiratory volume in 1 s to forced vital capacity and may allow detection of obstructive lung disease

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Medicine > Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology; Medicine > Institute and Polyclinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine
• Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• ISSN: 0938-7994
• Language: English