Acceleration of Ventilation-Weighted Free-Breathing Functional 1H MRI in Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Lung Disease

Motivation: Free-breathing pulmonary MRI acquisitions can be lengthy (i.e. 1-minute per slice) which can prove challenging for imaging pediatric lung diseases. Goal(s): The purpose of this work is to determine if reducing the free-breathing MRI scan time will produce stable ventilation defect measures that agree with hyperpolarized 129Xenon-MRI (Xe-MRI). Approach: Free-breathing MRI data acquired in cystic fibrosis patients were retrospectively truncated to compare measured Xe-MRI ventilation defects at shorter acquisition times. Results: Free-breathing MRI ventilation defects showed minimal variability and similar correlation strength to Xe-MRI following approximately 40% reductions in scan time. Impact: Free-breathing MRI can evaluate pulmonary ventilation in pediatric cystic fibrosis lung disease in agreement with 129Xenon-MRI but is lengthy. Accelerated free-breathing MRI allows for decreased scan durations, without compromising ventilation maps. This can potentially improve clinical translation, especially in pediatrics.