MRI of the lung gas-space at very low-field using hyperpolarized noble gases

Arvind K. Venkatesha, Adelaide X. Zhang, Joey Mansour, Lyubov Kubatina, Chang Hyun Oh, Gregory Blasche, M. Selim Ünlü, Dilip Balamore, Ferenc A. Jolesz, Bennett B. Goldberg, Mitchell S. Albert*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

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 (B0), 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).

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)773-776
Number of pages4
JournalMagnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume21
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2003

Funding

We thank Ralph Hashoian, Chih-Liang Chin, Gabriel Gomez, Jamie McKendry, and Alexandra Rockefeller for assistance with MR system components. This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01-HL57563), the National Science Foundation (BES-9617342), the Whitaker Foundation (RG 95-0192), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAG9-1041).

Keywords

  • Helium
  • Hyperpolarized
  • MRI
  • Very low-field
  • Xenon

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
  • Biomedical Engineering

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