?:abstract
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The recovery process of COVID-19 patients is unclear Some recovered patients complain of continued shortness of breath Vasculopathy has been reported in COVID-19, stressing the importance of probing microstructure and function of lungs at the alveolar-capillary interface While CT detects structural abnormalities, little is known about the impact of disease on lung function (129)Xe MRI is a technique uniquely capable of assessing ventilation, microstructure and gas exchange Using (129)Xe MRI, we found COVID-19 patients have higher ventilation defects percentage (5 9% vs 3 7%), unchanged microstructure, longer gas-blood exchange time (43 5 ms vs 32 5 ms), and reduced RBC/TP (0 279 vs 0 330) compared with healthy subjects These findings suggest regional ventilation and alveolar airspace dimensions are relatively normal around the time of discharge, while gas-blood exchange function is diminished This study establishes the feasibility of localized lung function measurement in COVID-19 patients Such readouts could be useful as a supplement to structural imaging
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