Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for Early Diagnosis of Cystic Fibrosis (CF)

German Cancer Research Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cystic Fibrosis; Lung Disease

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00760071

387/2005

Details and patient eligibility

About

In patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) the clinical course of lung disease is crucial for individual prognosis and life expectancy.

Imaging modalities are important in the assessment of follow up of structural lung changes and monitoring of pulmonary complications in CF. Although high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) is the accepted gold standard for evaluation of morphological lung changes in CF, chest-X-ray is widely used as standard imaging procedure for assessment and follow up in these young patients due to less radiation exposure.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has not been used for lung imaging in CF so far. Studies from the 80's and early 90's were not able to show any impact for the use of MRI in CF. Due to recent technical developments MRI of the lung became possible.

Our study group was able to show that MRI is a competitive imaging modality for evaluating changes of the CF-lung in comparison to the gold standard (HRCT).

So far only patients from the age of 6-7 years were examined. According to recent studies CF is a disease which starts in utero. Therefore it can lead to extensive pulmonary changes even in infants and young children. In this age group lung function testing is difficult and not broadly available. An early optimized therapy is crucial for the long term course and outcome of the pulmonary disease.

The aim of this study is to evaluate morphological and functional MRI for early diagnosis of lung changes in children (0-6 years) with CF.

Full description

Month 1-2: Protocol adaptation for infants and small children Month 3-14: Patient examinations (20 Patients with sedation) Month 15-18: Data evaluation

Enrollment: 30 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 1 day to 6 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Informed consent signed by the parents or a legal guardian
• Sedation as necessary
• Conventional clinical indicated diagnostic procedures (lung function test, chest-X-ray, CT)

Exclusion criteria

• Study exclusion in case of contra indications for MRI:

  • Patients with cardiac pace maker, metallic implants (e.g. cerebral vessel clips) as well as other conditions that prohibit the exposition of a patient to a strong magnetic field.
  • No informed consent
  • Dyspnea, which disables the patient to follow breathing instructions during the study.

Trial design

30 participants in 2 patient groups

1CF-patients<6

Description:

Patients with diagnoses of cystic fibrosis from birth to the age of 6 years

2 controls

Description:

age matched controls