F. William Hersman1,2, Jeff Ketel2,
Iulian Constantin Ruset, 1,2, Stephen Ketel2, Isabel
Dregely1, Walter Porter2, David W. Watt2,
John P. Mugler, III3, Talissa A. Altes3, Kai Ruppert3,
Jaime F. Mata3, Samuel Patz4, Hiroto Hatabu4,
Mirko Hrovat5, Iga Muradian4, Mikayel Dabaghyan4,
G. Wilson Miller3, Chengbo Wang3, James P. Butler6,
Jan H. Distelbrink2
1University of New Hampshire, Durham,
NH, United States; 2Xemed LLC, Durham, NH, United States; 3University
of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States; 4Brigham and
Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; 5Mirtech, Inc,
Brockton, MA, United States; 6Harvard School of Public Health,
Boston, MA, United States
Hyperpolarized
xenon-129 is potentially the most viable contrast agent to be used for
characterizing pulmonary function by MRI. Further improvements in polarizing
technology yield production rates of up to 15 liters/hour with 50%
polarization. This high production prototype polarizer was relocated to two
clinical sites and demonstrated in pilot clinical studies. First fully
engineered systems based on this design, XeBox-E10, will be available in 2010
for collaborative research.