Abstract #1325

Kilian W, Seifert F, Strowig M

For characterizing lung diseases or optimizing artificial respiration there is great interest in the dynamics of gas flow to the lungs. We have implied and tested a MR sequence for measuring gas-flow velocities using phase encoding techniques in combination with hyperpolarized 129Xe gas. To reduce artifacts, the k-space lines of the flow compensated and the flow weighted images were sampled in an interleaved scheme. In tests with phantoms we found excellent agreement between theoretically calculated velocities and those derived from the MR measurements. In the in vivo measurements we got good velocity maps within the trachea.