Pediatric pulmonary diseases are commonly evaluated with imaging that either involves ionizing radiation or lacks regional functional information.
To evaluate the feasibility of simultaneous structural and functional lung assessment in pediatric participants without radiation, contrast administration, or breath-holding.
This retrospective study analyzed pediatric patients with pulmonary disease and healthy participants, who were recruited from August 2023 to December 2025 via convenience sampling and underwent awake lung MRI on wide-bore 0.55-T scanners. A prototype balanced steady-state free-precession sequence with a half-radial dual-echo readout (bSTAR) was acquired with free breathing. Respiratory-resolved 3D images were reconstructed for structural evaluation and quantitative ventilation mapping. Two pediatric radiologists independently scored image quality (robustness to motion and streak artifacts, and parenchymal signal) and the anatomic visibility of the airways and vessels using 4-point Likert scales. Inter-reader agreement of structural findings was evaluated using Cohen’s κ. Ventilation defect percentage measured by bSTAR was compared with 2D phase-resolved functional lung (PREFUL) MRI using Pearson correlation and Bland–Altman analysis.
Fourteen participants (median [range] age, 11 [6—16] years; eight female) were scanned. Image quality scores ranged from 3.0 to 3.8 on Likert scales. All cases were diagnostically acceptable (artifact robustness scores ≥2), with consistent visualization of segmental airway walls and subsegmental vasculature. Structural findings, including consolidation, mucus plugging, ground-glass opacity, air trapping, bronchiectasis, and mosaic hypointensity, showed substantial inter-reader agreement (κ = 0.6–0.8). Ventilation defects measured by bSTAR correlated strongly with PREFUL (r = 0.81, p < 0.001), with 95% limits of agreement of − 18% to 23%.
Simultaneous structural-functional lung imaging in a single free-breathing acquisition was feasible in this cohort of older awake pediatric participants using 0.55-T MRI, with structural images suitable for evaluating major pulmonary findings and quantitative ventilation metrics correlating strongly with PREFUL.
Xin Miao, N. Lee, HaiThuy N. Nguyen et al.· Radiology Advances· 0 citations
PURPOSE
4D cardiac cine is a powerful tool for comprehensive cardiac function assessment; however, current methods rely on regular breathing and are sensitive to bulk motion and arrhythmia. We aim to develop a 4D cardiac cine approach that requires no patient cooperation and is robust to irregular breathing, bulk motion, and cardiac arrhythmia.
METHODS
2D real-time (RT) spiral bSSFP with synchronized ECG was acquired in 4 cardiac orientations. In each orientation, the 2D slice was "swept" across the heart to provide volume coverage. Retrospectively gated slice-to-volume reconstruction (SVR) was then performed to reconstruct 4D cine with 1 mm3 voxel size and 25 cardiac phases. RT-SVR and clinical standard breath-hold short-axis cine were acquired in 19 subjects, including 4 arrhythmia and 2 myocardial infarction patients. Biventricular volumes were measured, and blood-myocardium contrast and boundary sharpness scores were compared.
RESULTS
The RT-SVR approach successfully provided 4D cardiac cine for all subjects. Acquisition time was 8:33 ± 1:01 min and 8:27 ± 2:06 min (p = 0.85), blood-myocardium contrast ratio was 2.30 ± 0.58 and 2.38 ± 0.59 (p = 0.33), boundary sharpness was 1.11 ± 0.46 and 1.18 ± 0.53 (p = 0.04), for RT-SVR and breath-hold cine, respectively. Bi-ventricular volumes had good agreement, with an ejection fraction bias of -4.02% (p < 0.05) and -2.30% (p = 0.10) for left and right ventricles, respectively.
CONCLUSION
The RT-SVR approach enables 4D cardiac cine with comparable bi-ventricular volumes, contrast, sharpness, and acquisition time compared to standard breath-hold cine while providing additional motion robustness. This approach may be beneficial in patients that are non-cooperative, children, and those with irregular breathing and/or arrhythmia.
Ye Tian, Anand A Joshi, Jon A. Detterich et al.· Magnetic Resonance in Medici...· 0 citations
Volumetric real-time MRI is feasible for the guidance of invasive procedures such as right-heart catheterization at 0.55T and offers flexible real-time re-slicing, volumetric 3D visualization, and the potential for improved device monitoring.
Prakash Kumar, R. Ramasawmy, A. Javed et al.· Journal of Cardiovascular Ma...· 0 citations