01/15/2026
Eric Hoffman, PhD, and colleagues have developed imaging methods to detect damage from inflammatory lung diseases earlier — well before patients feel short of breath or show abnormalities on standard exams, the NIH reports.
For decades, physicians have relied on spirometry to detect chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, the global metrics derived from spirometry (a noninvasive breathing test) cannot sense regional lung damage in early disease. By the time these global indices of lung disease signal a d...