Developing new ways to image the lungs

POLARIS: Pulmonary, Lung and Respiratory Imaging Sheffield (Joint funding with MRC)

The BHF, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council (as part of its Clinical Research Capabilities and Technologies Initiative), has awarded a grant to a team led by lung imaging expert Professor James Wild at the University of Sheffield. One in seven people have lung disease in the UK, and one in five people die from lung disease in the UK. The tests that doctors currently use to assess lung disease in the clinic only provide limited information about how the disease develops in the early stages. CT is the current gold standard imaging test to look at the anatomy of the lungs and to visualise the arteries associated with them, but the radiation dose makes it unsuitable to use routinely, particularly in children. The Sheffield team study several lung diseases, including congenital lung disease, cystic fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension, where increased blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries in the lung ultimately causes heart failure. Many other lung conditions studied in Sheffield, like chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) can also have cardiovascular complications. The grant will enable them to expand lung imaging research at the University, which will help us understand lung disease better and find new, better and safer imaging methods. The grant will allow the researchers to do a variety of things, including replacing their whole body magnetic resonance (MR) scanner with a new system. They will use it to develop new methods using hyperpolarised agents – molecules that enable doctors to see the part of the body being scanned by making the image contrast much clearer – that can be rolled out quickly and be used routinely in hospitals around the UK. This exciting initiative will enable the centre to be an international centre of excellence for imaging the lung and could help the UK become a global leader in MR imaging with hyperpolarised agents.