A novel approach based on low‐field NMR for the detection of the pathological components of sputum in cystic fibrosis patients

Abstract

The presented method can potentially become a valuable lung-monitoring tool in CF patients. Magn Reson Med 79:2323-2331, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Use of low-field NMR for the characterization of gels and biological tissues

“…A further support for the relation between LF-NMR characterization and patients clinical conditions is provided by Figure 6 showing a linear correlation between T 2m and FEV1 (Forced Expiratory Volume in the first second), a typical test used to evaluate patients lung clinical conditions [21]. (ms)…”

“…Abrami et al [21] applied LF-NMR to establish a relation between the average relaxation time T 2m of the sputum of patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD, like cystic fibrosis) in relation to the patient's clinical conditions. This study was conducted by adopting the CPMG sequence set up described for the Figure 3 Figure 5.…”

“…Indeed, many authors employed LF-NMR to characterize bones [15][16][17][18], a very particular porous material, while Grassi et al [19] and Fiorentino et al [20] focussed on the characterization of polymeric scaffolds for tissue engineering. Finally, Abrami et al [21] dealt with a very new application of LF-NMR concerning the characterization of expectorate of patients affected by chronic pulmonary diseases like cystic fibrosis (CF).…”

Use of low field nuclear magnetic resonance to monitor lung inflammation and the amount of pathological components in the sputum of cystic fibrosis patients

“…Notably, in the sputum (derived from the lung mucus by expectoration) of CF patients, there is a pathological increase of the above biological elements with levels correlating to the severity of lung pathology . In our previous work, we showed that T 2m is able to detect the amounts of the pathological substances when dissolved in water (artificial sample) and in the saliva from healthy volunteers (conditional sputum) . These results prompted us to explore the possibility to measure T 2m also in the sputum of a large cohort of CF patients.…”

“…It is thus evident that rapid, cost‐effective, and informative strategies for lung ventilation evaluation in CF patients are urgently required. We have recently developed a novel approach based on the measurement, by low field nucleic magnetic resonance (LF‐NMR), of the spin‐spin relaxation time ( T 2m ) of the water hydrogens present in a liquid solution. T 2m is influenced by the amount of different substances, such as proteins, biological polymers, and mucin, present in the liquid solution.…”