To summarize state-of-the-art of MRI techniques for lung parenchyma, airways and pleura examination.

The use of chest-MRI has rapidly grown in the last decades, mainly due to technological improvements of sequences, hardware and acquisition strategies. This resulted in a increased image quality allowing chest-MRI to be routinely used in clinical practice, both for pediatric and adult patients. In the pediatric population, MRI has the main advantage to reduce radiation exposure, being children more sensitive than adults to ionizing radiations1. A well-known advantage of chest-MRI and MRI in general is the high tissue characterization due to multiparametric imaging (T1,...

MRI-SCANNER Both 1.5T and 3T MRI scanner are currently used to perform chest-MRI. While scan protocol with 1.5T have been recommended3, lung MRI is feasible also at 3T magnetic field, despite signal decay can be faster due to magnetic susceptibility effects dependent on the field strength8. MRI-SEQUENCES - STATE OF ART New technological improvements have enhanced MRI resolution and SNR, with image quality comparable to Computed Tomography(CT), in particular for lung morphological changes in pathologies like Cystic Fibrosis(CF) or even superior to CT for the...

Technological improvements of chest-MRI have enabled its introduction in clinical practice for pediatric and adult thoracic imaging, opening new diagnostic scenarios for COPD and ILD.

1. Miglioretti et al. The use of computed tomography in pediatrics and the associated radiation exposure and estimated cancer risk. JAMA Pediatr 2013;167(8):700–7. 2. Ciet P et al. Magnetic resonance imaging in children: common problems and possible solutions for lung and airways imaging. Pediatr Radiol 2015;45(13):1901–15. 3. Biederer J et al. MRI of the lung (2/3). Why... when ... how? Insights Imaging 2012;3(4):355–71. 4. Wild JM et al. MRI of the lung (1/3): methods. In sights imaging 2012;345–53. 5. Stadler A et al. Artifacts in...