Abstract #2210

Hyperpolarized Xe129 Ventilation Imaging Using an Optimized 3D Steady-State Free-Precession Pulse Sequence

John P. Mugler, III¹, Talissa A. Altes¹, Iulian C. Ruset^2,3, Stephen Ketel³, Jan H. Distelbrink³, Yulin Chang¹, Jaime F. Mata¹, F William Hersman^2,3, Kai Ruppert¹, Isabel M. Dregely²

¹Radiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA; ²Physics, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA; ³Xemed, LLC, Durham, NH, USA

The purpose of this work was to explore the potential of using a 3D steady-state free-precession (SSFP) pulse sequence for ventilation imaging with Xe129. We found that an optimized implementation of 3D-SSFP imaging combined with ~0.5 L of Xe129 polarized to 20% provided good quality 3D ventilation images of the lung with 6-mm isotropic spatial resolution. These results demonstrate that Xe129 ventilation images can be obtained with quality and spatial resolution similar to that demonstrated by using He3.