Quantitative assessment of pulmonary perfusion with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI

The feasibility of qualitative assessment of pulmonary perfusion using dyna mic contrast enhanced MRI with ultra-short TE has recently been demonstrate d, in the current study, quantitative analysis was attempted based on the i ndicator dilution principle using a pig model of pulmonary embolism. The re sults were compared with the absolute pulmonary perfusion obtained with col ored microspheres, The inverse of apparent mean transit time (1/tau(app)), distribution volume (V), and V/tau(app) were correlated well with the absol ute lung perfusion. This study demonstrates that MR has the potential to ev aluate pulmonary perfusion quantitatively, (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.