The timing of when an image is captured can impact what you see. The goal of this research is to determine the impact of menstrual cycle related changes in the female lung on imaging biomarkers of pulmonary structure and function assessed by both multi-energy, high spatial resolution CT and hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe MRI. We seek to elucidate, out to the interface of gas exchange, cyclic changes in the lung previously alluded to by global metrics (PFT). We further aim to understand how to best account for female cyclic pulmonary variability in cross sectional and longitudinal imaging study protocol designs as well as an understanding of the interactions of menstrual cycle-based changes in lung function overlaid onto inflammatory lung disease processes.

^{JC Sieren, KE Schroeder, J Guo, K Asosingh, S Erzurum, EA Hoffman. Menstrual cycle impacts lung structure measures derived from quantitative computed tomography. Eur Radiol. 32(5):2883-2890. DOI: 10.1007/s00330-021-08404-9 (2022). PMC9038622}

^{Koenig J, Winkels H, Sodenkamp T, Schroeder KE, Sieren JC. Thymus involution across the human menstrual cycle. Publication in process}