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Assessment of pulmonary physiological changes caused by aging, cigarette smoking, and COPD with hyperpolarized 129Xe magnetic resonance

  • Magnetic Resonance
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European Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

To comprehensively assess the impact of aging, cigarette smoking, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on pulmonary physiology using 129Xe MR.

Methods

A total of 90 subjects were categorized into four groups, including healthy young (HY, n = 20), age-matched control (AMC, n = 20), asymptomatic smokers (AS, n = 28), and COPD patients (n = 22). 129Xe MR was utilized to obtain pulmonary physiological parameters, including ventilation defect percent (VDP), alveolar sleeve depth (h), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), total septal wall thickness (d), and ratio of xenon signal from red blood cells and interstitial tissue/plasma (RBC/TP).

Results

Significant differences were found in the measured VDP (p = 0.035), h (p = 0.003), and RBC/TP (p = 0.003) between the HY and AMC groups. Compared with the AMC group, higher VDP (p = 0.020) and d (p = 0.048) were found in the AS group; higher VDP (p < 0.001), d (p < 0.001) and ADC (p < 0.001), and lower h (p < 0.001) and RBC/TP (p < 0.001) were found in the COPD group. Moreover, significant differences were also found in the measured VDP (p < 0.001), h (p < 0.001), ADC (p < 0.001), d (p = 0.008), and RBC/TP (p = 0.032) between the AS and COPD groups.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that pulmonary structure and functional changes caused by aging, cigarette smoking, and COPD are various, and show a progressive deterioration with the accumulation of these risk factors, including cigarette smoking and COPD.

Clinical relevance statement

Pathophysiological changes can be difficult to comprehensively understand due to limitations in common techniques and multifactorial etiologies. 129Xe MRI can demonstrate structural and functional changes caused by several common factors and can be used to better understand patients’ underlying pathology.

Key Points

  • Standard techniques for assessing pathophysiological lung function changes, spirometry, and chest CT come with limitations.

  • 129Xe MR demonstrated progressive deterioration with accumulation of the investigated risk factors, without these limitations.

  • 129Xe MR can assess lung changes related to these risk factors to stage and evaluate the etiology of the disease.

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Abbreviations

ADC:

Apparent diffusion coefficient

AMC:

Age-matched control

AS:

Asymptomatic smokers

COPD:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

CSSR:

Chemical shift saturation recovery

CT:

Computed tomography

d:

Total septal wall thickness

DWI:

Diffusion‐weighted imaging

FEV1 :

Forced expiratory volume in the first second

FRC:

Functional residual capacity

FVC:

Forced vital capacity

h:

Alveolar sleeve depth

Hct:

Blood hematocrit

HP:

Hyperpolarized

HY:

Healthy young

Lm :

Mean airspace chord length

PFTs:

Pulmonary function tests

RBC:

Red blood cell

RBC/TP:

Ratio of xenon signal from red blood cells and interstitial tissue/plasma

TP:

Tissue/plasma

VDP:

Ventilation defects percent

δ:

Barrier thickness

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Funding

This work is supported by National key Research and Development Program of China (grant no. 2018YFA0704000, 2022YFC2410000), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82127802, 21921004, 82372150, 81930049, 82202119), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant No. XDB0540000), Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS (grant no. ZDBS-LY-JSC004), Hubei Provincial Key Technology Foundation of China(2021ACA013, 2023BAA021) and Hubei Provincial Outstanding Youth Fund (2023AFA112). Haidong Li and Xiuchao Zhao acknowledge the support from Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS (grant no. 2020330, 2021330).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Qiuchen Rao, Haidong Li, and Qian Zhou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance in Biological Systems, State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, National Center for Magnetic Resonance in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences–Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Qiuchen Rao, Haidong Li, Qian Zhou, Ming Zhang, Xiuchao Zhao, Lei Shi, Junshuai Xie, Yeqing Han, Fumin Guo & Xin Zhou

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Haidong Li, Ming Zhang, Xiuchao Zhao, Lei Shi, Junshuai Xie, Yeqing Han & Xin Zhou

  3. Department of Radiology, Changzheng Hospital of the Second Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200003, China

    Li Fan & Shiyuan Liu

  4. School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou, 570228, China

    Xin Zhou

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  1. Qiuchen Rao
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Correspondence to Xin Zhou.

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The scientific guarantor of this publication is Xin Zhou.

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The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

Statistics and biometry

No complex statistical methods were necessary for this paper.

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Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects (patients) in this study.

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This study was performed under the approval of the Institutional Review Board at Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Ethical code: APMH22005A.

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Rao, Q., Li, H., Zhou, Q. et al. Assessment of pulmonary physiological changes caused by aging, cigarette smoking, and COPD with hyperpolarized 129Xe magnetic resonance. Eur Radiol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-024-10800-w

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