Matthew S. Fox1,2, Alexei Ouriadov1,
William Dominguez-Viqueira1,3, Marcus Couch1,2, Giles
E. Santyr1,3
1Imaging, Robarts Research Institute,
London, Ontario, Canada; 2Physics and Astronomy Dept, University
of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; 3Medical Biophysics,
University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Magnetic
Resonance (MR) imaging using hyperpolarized noble gases (HNG) 3He
and 129Xe provides a non-invasive approach for probing both lung
function and structure. Measurement of
ventilated lung volumes are useful for characterizing chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, quantifying the diffusing capacity of xenon and may be useful in
measuring lung mechanics such as compliance.
The objective of this work was to perform 3D MR imaging in rats under
similar ventilation conditions and compare measured ventilated volumes
obtained from the two gases in an effort to show that 129Xe is
just as accurate as 3He which has already been validated by
microCT.