Pulmonary Microvascular Blood Flow Assessment

Pulmonary microvascular blood flow was assessed on MRI at one site using a modified version of the cardiac MRI protocol of the fifth examination of MESA on a 1.5 Tesla whole-body MR system (Signa LX, GE Healthcare) with phased-array coil for signal reception using a coronal Time Resolved Imaging of Contrast Kinetics (TRICKS) sequence and a contrast bolus of 0.1 mmol/kg bodyweight gadolinium diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Magnevist, Berlex, Wayne, NJ) at an injection rate of 5 mL/s. Mean values of pulmonary microvascular blood flow and volume were assessed on a coronal slice at the level of the trachea in the peripheral 2 cm of the lung, as previously described[48 (link)].