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Dynamic echo planar MR imaging of lung ventilation with hyperpolarized 3 He in normal subjects and patients with severe emphysema
Author(s) -
Gierada David S.,
Saam Brian,
Yablonskiy Dmitriy,
Cooper Joel D.,
Lefrak Stephen S.,
Conradi Mark S.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
nmr in biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.278
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1099-1492
pISSN - 0952-3480
DOI - 10.1002/1099-1492(200006)13:4<176::aid-nbm640>3.0.co;2-i
Subject(s) - nuclear medicine , flip angle , lung , ventilation (architecture) , washout , medicine , pulse (music) , echo planar imaging , magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance , materials science , radiology , physics , optics , detector , thermodynamics
We applied the rapid imaging capability of echo planar MR pulse sequences and hyperpolarized 3 He ventilation imaging to observe the dynamic distribution of gas in the lungs during breathing. Findings in five normal volunteers (age 19–53 years) and four patients with severe smoking‐related emphysema (age 56–71 years) were compared. All studies were performed on a 1.5 T whole body scanner using a 30 cm Helmholtz surface coil and 0.5 l of 20–40% polarized 3 He mixed with 1–2 l nitrogen. Our echo planar imaging pulse sequence allowed acquisition of each image in 0.04 s, with a pixel size of 7 mm 2 ( TR = 40.5 ms, TE = 12.1 ms, flip angle = 22°, echo train length = 32, matrix = 32 × 64, field of view = 225 × 450 mm, slice thickness = 10 mm). Imaging was performed in the transaxial plane repeatedly at 3, 10 or 20 evenly spaced levels, immediately before and during breathing of the gas mixture. In normal subjects during the first breath, 3 He appeared throughout each slice first in the mid lungs, then in the lower lungs, then in the upper lungs, with slightly greater signal in the dependent posterior regions. In patients with emphysema, sequential filling of different lung regions was seen during the first breath, with delayed filling of other regions observed during rebreathing and room air washout. We conclude that subsecond dynamic 3 He MR ventilation imaging can reveal normal and abnormal ventilation phenomena not seen with conventional scintigraphic methods, and offers another approach to the study of ventilation physiology and pathophysiology. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.