In Oxford, a pioneering lung imaging technique is being trialled which could improve the wellbeing outcomes of people with asthma and similar conditions, through more effective diagnosis and treatment. Churchill Hospital will be one of the first in the world to implement xenon imaging in its practice, and doctors there will be better able to understand what is wrong with your lungs.
Traditional MRI scans create problems for doctors hoping to get an accurate picture, as the space left by the air in your lungs does not create a magnetic signal that can be imaged, and so the lungs appear black and difficult to read. The new method, on the other hand, can image lungs using a specially adapted MRI scanner, thanks to the patient inhaling ‘hyperpolarised’ xenon gas before the scan, which is a gas that occurs naturally in tiny quantities in the atmosphere. Oxford is one of a small number of centres in the world licensed to produce the special xenon.
Researcher Dr Tahreema Matin explained, ‘For different diseases, xenon imaging would have different roles. For diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma, part of its role would be to identify those with mild forms of the disease and show exactly where within the lung the disease is. That would then inform the treatment.’
She continued, ‘One of the limits of radiotherapy in treating lung cancer is that it destroys healthy tissue. Using xenon imaging you may be able to see whether it is safe to irradiate a particular area of lung, or whether the incidental dose of radiation given to non-cancerous lung tissue in the same region will lead to significant loss of lung function.’
For the xenon imaging trial, the team will first create a series of lung images from patient scans this spring, and then go on to study specific lung wellness conditions. ‘We will collect about 40 images of normal lungs. That will essentially form an atlas, so when we look at diseased lungs we will have a reference point. Because this technique is new, we need to know what normal lungs look like. Everyone is different so we need to look at a range of patients to build up that baseline,’ Matin said.
The National Institute for Health Research’s Oxford Biomedical Research Centre is supporting the UK’s first trial of xenon imaging, which will be able to detail how the lung is functioning, as well as its structure. Programme director Dr Jenni Lee said, ‘The advantage we have at the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre is that direct link between research and clinicians. What we have in this centre is the collaboration between radiologists, oncologists and the respiratory team from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and scientists from Oxford University.’
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