Oxygen-enhanced MR imaging: Correlation with postsurgical lung function in patients with lung cancer

PURPOSE: To prospectively determine if lung function as assessed with oxygen-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging correlates with postsurgical lung function in patients with lung cancer, as compared with quantitative and qualitative findings of computed tomography (CT) and scintigraphy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study received institutional review board approval, and informed patient consent was obtained. Thirty consecutive patients (16 men and 14 women, aged 44-81 years; mean age, 65 years) considered candidates for lung resection underwent oxygen-enhanced MR imaging, CT, perfusion scintigraphy, and measurement of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁). A respiratory-synchronized inversion-recovery half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin-echo MR sequence was used for data acquisition. Correlation of postsurgical lung function (postsurgical FEV₁) as determined with oxygen-enhanced MR imaging (FEV_1MR), quantitative assessment with CT (FEV _1Quant), qualitative assessment with CT (FEV_1Qual), and perfusion scintigraphy (FEV_1PS) was conducted with actual postsurgical FEV₁, and the limits of agreement of each were determined with Bland-Altman analysis. RESULTS: Correlation between postsurgical FEV_1MR and actual postsurgical FEV₁ values was excellent (r² = 0.81, P < .001); it was better than that of FEV _1Qual (r² = 0.76) and FEV_1PS (r² = 0.77) and similar to that of FEV_1Quant (r² = 0.81) values. The limits of agreement of FEV_1MR were between -9.9% and 10.9%. CONCLUSION: Oxygen-enhanced MR imaging can be used to predict posturgical lung function in patients with lung cancer, similar to quantitative CT.