Software to determine lung function based on 19F MRI lung images
Duke inventors have developed a software to determine lung function based on 19F MRI lung images. This technology, called Washout, calculates quantitative functional values for anatomic regions of the lung by fitting a model to the MRI images repeatedly captured as a patient breathes in 19F gas. The quantitative values of some or all of the spatial regions can be further analyzed statistically to group levels of change within the subject, or by comparison to a stored group of values from a comparison group of subjects. A report on these changes can be either manually or automatically generated. This technology can be run in either a Graphical User Interface (GUI) mode or in a Command Line Interface (CLI) mode for interactive or automatic batch usage, respectively. Data can be input in a variety of formats. Results can be output at various stages of processing, and for a variety of functional comparisons. This technology has been demonstrated with patients.