The findings of our study (FAST COPD) have been recently published in he Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
Full Publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/jmri.29444
The study with Professors Charlotte Bolton and Ian Hall from the NIHR Nottingham BRC and University of Nottingham and Professors Penny Gowland and Susan Francis in SPMIC.
What is the purpose of the study?
The aim of this study is to use different types of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to investigate how well your lungs are working. We will perform some scans to look at the structure of your lungs, much like a computed tomography (CT) scan. Other scans will tell us about your lung function.
Using these MRI scans, we would like to investigate the differences in lung function between healthy volunteers and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (A1ATD).
This study is also being undertaken as part of a collaborative PhD project between Respiratory Medicine and Medical Physics students at the University of Nottingham.
What is Magnetic Resonance Imaging?
MRI is a powerful technique for diagnosing disease and investigating various processes going on inside the human body without the use of potentially harmful ionising radiation (e.g. x-rays). An exciting feature of MRI is its ability to produce information about what is happening inside a tissue (e.g. blood flow) as well as simply where the tissue is.