Assessment of repeatability of imaging inhaled hyperpolarized xenon-129 in the human brain

This study assesses the repeatability of image quality of inhaled hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe brain MRI by assessing the signal-to-noise ratio of ¹²⁹Xe brain images for five healthy subjects. A maximum signal-to-noise ratio of 18.8 ±6.1 and mean signal-to-noise ratio of 12.1 ±3.8 was observed over the five volunteers. An intra-subject variability between ±6 % and ±30 %, and inter-subject variability of ±30 % was observed. By using an optimized polarizer, RF coil and pulse sequence as in this study, we believe the signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently reproducible for further clinical evaluation.