Quantitative Evaluation of Hyperpolarized Helium-3 Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Lung Function Variability in Cystic Fibrosis

Hyperpolarized 3He MRI VDP measurement precision resulted in an SDD for individual CF subjects of 2%, indicating that changes greater than this can be attributed to lung functional changes and not measurement error. After 7 days, significant changes in mean 3He VDV and VDP were detected and these changes were not reflected by changes in pulmonary function measurements. These findings demonstrate the high sensitivity and reproducibility of 3He MRI functional imaging that permits the use of relatively small samples sizes in CF interventional studies.