Harald E. Mller1,2, Zackary I. Cleveland2,
Laurence W. Hedlund2, John Nouls2, Matthew Freeman2,3,
Yi Qi2, Bastiaan Driehuys2
1Max Planck Institute for
Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; 2Center
for In Vivo Microscopy, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, United
States; 3Graduate Program in Medical Physics, Duke University,
Durham, NC, United States
Information on pulmonary perfusion can be obtained by from experiments involving intravenous injection of hyperpolarized (HP) 129Xe. Signal curves recorded in rats during bolus transport through the gas-exchange region can be fitted to a model that assumes delayed bolus arrival and an exponential transport function to account for dispersion effects. Quantitative results are consistent with expected values for the cardiac output and transit times in the lung.