Applications of Magnetic Resonance to the Study of the Lung

✍ Scribed by Robert Gilkeson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 14 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1053-1807
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1522-2586(199903)9:3<502::aid-jmri23>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

The challenge of any comprehensive work on MRI is to be able to appeal to both basic scientists and clinicians. Applications of Magnetic Resonance to the Study of the Lung, edited by Anthony Cutillo, achieves this goal. Within its pages the subjects range widely, from basic MRI principles to fractal geometry of the lung. Each chapter is extensively referenced and well illustrated. The book will be a valuable addition to the libraries of scientists and imagers involved in thoracic diseases.

The book is roughly divided into three main sections. The first is a discussion of MRI applications (and its inevitable limitations) in the evaluation of lung disease and injury. In this section, there are two particularly cogent introductory chapters on MRI physics. Chapters 3 and 4 are reviews of the microscopic anatomy of the lung. While the many pages on topics such as collagen formation can be skimmed by the chest radiologist, Chapter 4 is a sophisticated review of the pathology of those processes we so unsophisticatedly call ''edema'' on countless ICU films.

MRI imaging of the lung has a number of limitations, including respiratory motion artifacts, susceptibility artifact, and the inherently low proton density of lung parenchyma. The middle section of this book deals extensively with these limitations, and the many models and experimental protocols developed to minimize many of these limitations. These are chapters geared to the MRI scientist, although the later chapter by Glazer makes these techniques more accessible to the clinician. Much time is spent in a discussion of the characterization and quantification of lung water. While it is made clear that the T1 and T2 lengthening that occurs in pathologic states in the lung can help us detect parenchymal disease, it is also clear that the clinical utility of MRI in parenchymal disease is still limited.