Yulin V. Chang1
1Mechanical Engineering,
We present in this a work a simple model of gas exchange in the lung for hyperpolarized Xe129. This model expresses the two dissolved-xenon signal amplitudes in the lung in terms of several important pulmonary parameters, including surface area-to-volume ratio, air-blood barrier thickness, capillary blood transit time, etc. It provides a means to quantify not only the microstructure, but the physiology and function of the lung. It can potentially be used in diagnosing a variety of related pulmonary diseases.