Chest Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Advances and Clinical Care

Until the publication by the Fleischner Society or JSMRM of reposition papers concerning clinical indications for chest MRI, MRI had been used for dealing with a limited number of clinical problems for physicians. However, recent advances in MRI have resulted in more possible clinical applications of chest MRI, which can serve as a substitute or in a complementary role to CT and FDG-PET/CT for patient management. While CT currently remains the principal imaging tool for routine lung imaging, MRI may emerge as the clinical standard or significantly change patient care in some situations. MRI is likely an important tool capable of providing unique physiologic, pathophysiologic, and morphologic information about relaxation time or water molecule diffusion -based imaging, for patients with thoracic oncology or major pulmonary vascular diseases. While major efforts must therefore continue to be made by industry and developers to realize the potential of MRI for improving patient care, chest MRI is currently recommended for use by clinicians for diagnosis, TNM staging, or management of patients with thoracic oncology or pulmonary vascular diseases.