@article{KaireitSorrentinoRenneetal.2017,
  author    = {Kaireit, Till F. and Sorrentino, Sajoscha A. and Renne, Julius and Schoenfeld, Christian and Voskrebenzev, Andreas and Gutberlet, Marcel and Schulz, Angela and Jakob, Peter M. and Hansen, Gesine and Wacker, Frank and Welte, Tobias and T{\"u}mmler, Burkhard and Vogel-Claussen, Jens},
  title     = {Functional lung MRI for regional monitoring of patients with cystic fibrosis},
  series = {PLoS ONE},
  volume    = {12},
  journal   = {PLoS ONE},
  number    = {12},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0187483},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-172457},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Purpose To test quantitative functional lung MRI techniques in young adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) compared to healthy volunteers and to monitor immediate treatment effects of a single inhalation of hypertonic saline in comparison to clinical routine pulmonary function tests. Materials and methods Sixteen clinically stable CF patients and 12 healthy volunteers prospectively underwent two functional lung MRI scans and pulmonary function tests before and 2h after a single treatment of inhaled hypertonic saline or without any treatment. MRI-derived oxygen enhanced T1 relaxation measurements, fractional ventilation, first-pass perfusion parameters and a morpho-functional CF-MRI score were acquired. Results Compared to healthy controls functional lung MRI detected and quantified significantly increased ventilation heterogeneity in CF patients. Regional functional lung MRI measures of ventilation and perfusion as well as the CF-MRI score and pulmonary function tests could not detect a significant treatment effect two hours after a single treatment with hypertonic saline in young adults with CF (p>0.05). Conclusion This study shows the feasibility of functional lung MRI as a non-invasive, radiation-free tool for monitoring patients with CF.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{ZellerMuellerGutberletetal.2013,
  author    = {Zeller, Mario and M{\"u}ller, Alexander and Gutberlet, Marcel and Nichols, Thomas and Hahn, Dietbert and K{\"o}stler, Herbert and Bartsch, Andreas J.},
  title     = {Boosting BOLD fMRI by K-Space Density Weighted Echo Planar Imaging},
  series = {PLoS ONE},
  journal   = {PLoS ONE},
  doi       = {10.1371/journal.pone.0074501},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-97233},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become a powerful and influential method to non-invasively study neuronal brain activity. For this purpose, the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) effect is most widely used. T2* weighted echo planar imaging (EPI) is BOLD sensitive and the prevailing fMRI acquisition technique. Here, we present an alternative to its standard Cartesian recordings, i.e. k-space density weighted EPI, which is expected to increase the signal-to-noise ratio in fMRI data. Based on in vitro and in vivo pilot measurements, we show that fMRI by k-space density weighted EPI is feasible and that this new acquisition technique in fact boosted spatial and temporal SNR as well as the detection of local fMRI activations. Spatial resolution, spatial response function and echo time were identical for density weighted and conventional Cartesian EPI. The signal-to-noise ratio gain of density weighting can improve activation detection and has the potential to further increase the sensitivity of fMRI investigations.},
  language  = {en}
}