Pulmonary Functional Imaging

This book reviews the basics of pulmonary functional imaging using new CT and MR techniques and describes the clinical applications of these techniques in detail.  The intention is to equip readers with a full understanding of pulmonary functional imaging that will allow optimal application of all relevant techniques in the assessment of a variety of diseases, including COPD, asthma, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary thromboembolism, pulmonary hypertension, lung cancer and pulmonary nodule.

Pulmonary functional imaging has been promoted as a research and diagnostic tool that has the capability to overcome the limitations of morphological assessments as well as functional evaluation based on traditional nuclear medicine studies. The recent advances in CT and MRI and in medical image processing and analysis have given further impetus to pulmonary functional imaging and provide the basis for future expansion of its use in clinical applications. In documenting the utility of state-of-the-art pulmonary functional imaging in diagnostic radiology and pulmonary medicine, this book will be of high value for chest radiologists, pulmonologists, pulmonary surgeons, and radiation technologists.

Yoshiharu Ohno, MD, PhD, is Full Professor of Radiology and Chief of the Joint Research Laboratory of Advanced Medical Imaging at Fujita Health University School of Medicine in Japan. He graduated in Medicine at Kobe University Medical School and in 1993 undertook a Radiology residency at Kobe University Hospital.  Between 1994 and 1998, he studied Radiology as a postdoctoral course student at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine. Subsequently, he was appointed first Assistant Professor (2000–4) and then Associate Professor (2004–12) for chest radiology, as well as Chief of the Division of Functional and Diagnostic Imaging Research, at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine.  During April 2012 and March 2019, he was appointed full Professor and Chief of the Division of Functional and Diagnostic Imaging Research and General Manager of the Advanced Biomedical Imaging Research Center at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine.  On April 1st 2019, he move from Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine to Fujita Health University and took up his current position. Dr. Ohno has studied chest MRI, especially in lung cancer, and pulmonary functional MRI in routine clinical practice.  He is a member of the Fleischner Society and was board chair of the International Workshop of Pulmonary Functional Imaging from 2015 to 2017. 

Hiroto Hatabu, MD, PhD FACR, is Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School as well as Medical Director of the Center for Pulmonary Functional Imaging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He studied Medicine at Kyoto University, graduating in 1983, and was awarded his PhD in 1994. He completed a Diagnostic Radiology Residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1995, and is board certified in both Japan and the United States. His fields of research include MR assessment of pulmonary circulation and perfusion, MRI of lung parenchyma, oxygen-enhanced MRI, radiation dosereduction, and image-based phenotyping. He is one of the founders of the International Workshop for Pulmonary Functional Imaging, and served as first Board Chair from 2004 to 2011. He is a member of the Fleischner Society and a fellow of the American College of Radiology.

Hans-Ulrich Kauczor, MD, is Full Professor and Chairman of Radiology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany as well as Medical Director of the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the university hospital. He studied Medicine at the Universities of Bonn, Heidelberg, and Cologne. He subsequently undertook a Radiology residency at University Hospital Mainz and received his Habilitation degree as university lecturer in 1998. From 1996 until 2002 he acted as Assistant Professor for chest radiology at the University Hospital Mainz. In 2003 he became Full Professor for Radiology and leader of the Department of Radiology at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg before taking the Chairmanship of Radiology at the University of Heidelberg in 2008. Dr. Kauczor was among the first to implement helium-3 MRI in clinical trials. Since then, his group has focused on standard protocols for routine comprehensive proton MRI of lung disease. He was President of the European Society of Thoracic Imaging in 2011 and the Fleischner Society in 2015.