Martin Heiner Deppe1, Juan Parra-Robles1, Salma Ajraoui1, Stephen R. Parnell1, Matthew Clemence2, Rolf F. Schulte3, Jim M. Wild1
1Academic Unit of Radiology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, Yorkshire, UK; 2Philips Medical Systems, UK; 3GE Global Research, Munich, Germany
The influence of B0 field strength in MRI of hyperpolarized nuclei is still a matter of discussion. In this work, 3He human lung ventilation images obtained at the clinical relevant B0 field strengths 1.5T and 3T are compared, with focus on ventilation heterogeneity. Apparent ventilation heterogeneity is assessed by the coefficient of variation (CoV) of nearest neighbor pixel intensities. For identical TE it is found that images obtained at 3T appear more heterogeneous in the same subject, due to increased susceptibility effects. This effect will have to be taken into account when comparing quantitative markers of ventilation heterogeneity.