New frontiers in asthma chest imaging

Abstract

Modern pulmonary imaging can reveal underlying pathologic and pathophysiologic changes in the lungs of people with asthma, with important clinical implications. A multitude of imaging modalities, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, optical coherence tomography, and endobronchial ultrasound, are now being used to examine underlying structure-function relationships. Imaging-based biomarkers from these techniques, including airway dimensions, blood vessel volumes, mucus scores, extent of ventilation defect, and extent of air trapping, often have increased sensitivity compared with that of traditional lung function measurements and are increasingly being used as end points in clinical trials. Imaging has been crucial to recent improvements in our understanding of the relationships between type 2 inflammation, eosinophilia, and mucus extent. With the advent of effective anti–type 2 biologic therapies, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging techniques can identify not just which patients benefit from therapy but why they benefit. Clinical trials have begun to assess the utility of imaging to prospectively plan airway therapy targets in bronchial thermoplasty and have potential to direct future bronchoscopic therapies. Together, imaging techniques provide a diverse set of tools to investigate how spatially distributed airway, blood, and parenchymal abnormalities shape disease heterogeneity in patients with asthma.