Includes References and Index

For a long time the lung has been regarded as the black hole in MRI. In the
1980s courageous physicists and radiologists have tried to investigate
different lung diseases using MRI, but they could neither produce convincing
image quality within a reasonable examination time nor generate a substantial clinical impact. This has clearly changed in the last 15 years. Since then,
however, the investigation of the potential application of MRI for the study of
lung diseases is a challenging and exciting field of clinical research driven by
the rapid development of new techniques and sequences for cardiac MRI as
well as by the use of hyperpolarized noble gases as novel contrast agents.
The specific ability of MRI to visualize simultaneously morphological
changes and modifications in perfusion, ventilation and gas exchange has
opened up totally new perspectives to lung imaging and subsequently entered
the clinical arena. Thus, the great success of the first edition of MRI of the
Lung and the rapid development since then clearly encouraged us to prepare
an updated second edition. This book again eminently illustrates the mutation
of radiology from pure morphology to combined morphological–functional
imaging. The original chapters were kept, updated and extended in order to
cover the basics, such as
– the rationale and recommendation of a suggested standard protocol
– non-contrast and contrast-enhanced pulmonary MR angiography
– non-contrast and contrast-enhanced MR perfusion imaging
– ventilation imaging using hyperpolarized gases (3He, 129Xe) as alternative
nuclei, or fluorinated gases as well as oxygen for dynamic proton MRI
Further, international world-renowned experts describe how MRI can be
used in the clinical setting to diagnose, characterize and quantify different
lung diseases such as pulmonary hypertension and thromboembolic disease,
vascular anomalies and diseases, chronic obstructive airways disease (asthma,
COPD, cystic fibrosis), lung cancer, mediastinal disease, pneumonia, diffuse
parenchymal disease (fibrosis) and diseases of the pleura and the chest wall.
To further reflect the current developments in MRI of the lung, three new
chapters were added to the second edition. They highlight the novel role of
pulmonary MRI in animal models of respiratory diseases and in clinical trials
as well as the specific challenges when using 3 T systems and the integration
of lung imaging into whole body MRI protocols, such as staging in oncological disease. We are very grateful to the contributing authors, all outstanding experts in
their fields, for preparing this fine volume on a highly active topic for our
series. The second edition again represents the leading handbook to provide a
comprehensive overview of our current knowledge on the clinical role of
MRI of the lung. In addition it outlines future perspectives for potential new
applications of this imaging modality at the cutting edge of radiology.
This volume is highly recommended to certified radiologists, particularly
those with a special interest in chest imaging and/or MRI, and to radiologists
in training. However, pneumologists, cardiologists and chest surgeons will
also find it a very useful source of information for better diagnostic and therapeutic management of their patients. We have no doubt that this volume will
again meet the appropriate interest and well-deserved success with our
readership.