New Lung Scan Technology Enables Real-Time Monitoring of Airflow in COPD, Transplant Patients: Study Finds - Video

A new scan method for lung scanning has enabled the team, led by researchers at Newcastle University, UK, to see how air moves in and out of the lungs as people take a breath in patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and patients who have received a lung transplant. The findings are published in Radiology.

Publishing two complementary papers in Radiology and JHLT Open, the team explain how they use a special gas, called perfluoropropane, that can be seen on an MRI scanner. The gas can be safely breathed in and out by patients, and then scans taken to look at where in the lungs the gas has reached.

Using the new scanning method, the team are able to reveal the parts of the lung that air doesn't reach properly during breathing. By measuring how much of the lung is well-ventilated and how much is poorly ventilated, experts can make an assessment of the effects of a patient's respiratory disease, and they can locate and visualise the lung regions with ventilation defects.

The new scanning technique allows the team to quantify the degree of improvement in ventilation when patients have a treatment, in this case a widely used inhaler, the bronchodilator, salbutamol.

A further study, published in JHLT Open, examined patients who had previously received a lung transplant for very severe lung disease.

The team scanned transplant recipients' lungs over multiple breaths in and out, collecting MRI pictures that show how the air containing the gas reached different areas of the lung. The team scanned those who either had normal lung function or who were experiencing chronic rejection after lung transplant, which is a common issue in lung transplant recipients as their immune system attacks the donor lungs. In those with chronic rejection, the scans showed poorer movement of air to the edges of the lungs, most likely due to damage in the very small breathing tubes (airways) in the lung, a feature typical of chronic rejection also known as chronic lung allograft dysfunction.

Reference: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2024/12/newscanmethodunveilslungfunctionsecrets/