An editorial published online on 13 December in the European Journal of Radiology recommends 12 ways to improve thoracic imaging in the future.
Among the suggestions are shorter MRI chest scan times, reduced radiation exposure from CT, and noncontrast MR angiography for pulmonary embolism in 20 minutes.
Dr. Hiroto Hatabu, medical director for the Center for Pulmonary Functional Imaging at Brigham and Women's Hospital and professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, offered 12 "unresolved issues" in thoracic imaging that researchers should address.
His list includes:
- Chest MR protocol in 10 minutes
- Chest CT scan under 0.1 mSv
- CT reconstruction kernel producing true and reproducible HUvalues
- Reproducible CT or MR quantification of emphysema
- Reproducible CT or MR quantification of pulmonary fibrosis
- Reproducible CT or MR quantification of pulmonary hypertension
- Establish standard lung use with CT or MRI for computational approach
- Practical (computation time less than five minutes) ventilation imaging based on computation of spatial distortion using CT or MRI without ventilation agent
- Simple pulmonary function test in three minutes using dynamic 3D (4D) MRI or CT
- Accurate and practical noncontrast MR angiography for pulmonary embolism in 20 minutes
- Personalized tumor response criteria for lung cancer
- Artificial intelligence diagnosis of chest CT dataset
Hatabu also presented his wish list at the Japanese Society for Pulmonary Functional Imaging in Tokushima, Japan, in January 2013 and at the International Workshop for Pulmonary Functional Imaging in Madison, Wisconsin, in July.
