Quantification of pulmonary perfusion abnormalities using DCE-MRI in COPD: comparison with quantitative CT and pulmonary function

Objectives Pulmonary perfusion abnormalities are prevalent in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are potentially reversible, and may be associated with emphysema development. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the clinical meaningfulness of perfusion defects in percent (QDP) using DCE-MRI. Methods We investigated a subset of baseline DCE-MRIs, paired inspiratory/expiratory CTs, and pulmonary function testing (PFT) of 83 subjects (age = 65.7 ± 9.0 years, patients-at-risk, and all GOLD groups) from one center of the “COSYCONET” COPD cohort. QDP was computed from DCE-MRI using an in-house developed quantification pipeline, including four different approaches: Otsu’s method, k-means clustering, texture analysis, and 80th percentile threshold. QDP was compared with visual MRI perfusion scoring, CT parametric response mapping (PRM) indices of emphysema (PRMEmph) and functional small airway disease (PRMfSAD), and FEV1/FVC from PFT. Results All QDP approaches showed high correlations with the MRI perfusion score (r = 0.67 to 0.72, p < 0.001), with the highest association based on Otsu’s method (r = 0.72, p < 0.001). QDP correlated significantly with all PRM indices (p < 0.001), with the strongest correlations with PRMEmph (r = 0.70 to 0.75, p < 0.001). QDP was distinctly higher than PRMEmph (mean difference = 35.85 to 40.40) and PRMfSAD (mean difference = 15.12 to 19.68), but in close agreement when combining both PRM indices (mean difference = 1.47 to 6.03) for all QDP approaches. QDP correlated moderately with FEV1/FVC (r = − 0.54 to − 0.41, p < 0.001). Conclusion QDP is associated with established markers of disease severity and the extent corresponds to the CT-derived combined extent of PRMEmph and PRMfSAD. We propose to use QDP based on Otsu’s method for future clinical studies in COPD. Key Points • QDP quantified from DCE-MRI is associated with visual MRI perfusion score, CT PRM indices, and PFT. • The extent of QDP from DCE-MRI corresponds to the combined extent of PRMEmph and PRMfSAD from CT. • Assessing pulmonary perfusion abnormalities using DCE-MRI with QDP improved the correlations with CT PRM indices and PFT compared to the quantification of pulmonary blood flow and volume.