MRI of the lung gas-space at very low-field using hyperpolarized noble gases.
In hyperpolarized (HP) noble-gas magnetic resonance imaging, large nuclear spin polarizations, about 100,000 times that ordinarily obtainable at thermal equilibrium, are created in 3He and 129Xe. The enhanced signal that results can be employed in high-resolution MRI studies of void spaces such as in the lungs. In HP gas MRI the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) depends only weakly on the static magnetic field (B(0)), making very low-field (VLF) MRI possible; indeed, it is possible to contemplate portable MRI using light-weight solenoids or permanent magnets. This article reports the first in vivo VLF MR images of the lungs in humans and in rats, obtained at a field of only 15 millitesla (150 Gauss).
Venkatesh
Arvind K
AK
Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Zhang
Adelaide X
AX
Mansour
Joey
J
Kubatina
Lyubov
L
Oh
Chang Hyun
CH
Blasche
Gregory
G
Selim Unlü
M
M
Balamore
Dilip
D
Jolesz
Ferenc A
FA
Goldberg
Bennett B
BB
Albert
Mitchell S
MS
D000818:Animals; D006371:Helium; D006801:Humans; D007554:Isotopes; D008168:Lung / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014979:Xenon Isotopes
D007554:Isotopes; D014979:Xenon Isotopes; D006371:Helium