Nikhil Kanhere1, 2, Miranda Kirby1, 3, Andrew Wheatley1, Alexei Ouriadov1, Giles E. Santyr1, 3, David G. McCormack4, Grace Parraga1, 2
1Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; 2Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering, The University of Western Ontario; 3Medical Biophysics, The University of Western Ontario; 4Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, The University of Western Ontario
The objective was to determine the reproducibility of hyperpolarized xenon-129 (129Xe) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements within the same day (5-min rescan) and after 7-days in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) ex-smokers. For all subjects (n=9) there was no significant difference for 129Xe ventilation defect percent (VDP) between the scan and 5-min rescan (p=.80) nor was there a significant difference between all three time-points for the three COPD subjects that returned for 7-day imaging (p=.06). These findings suggest that 129Xe is a highly reproducible gas and a feasible alternative to 3He MRI with strong translational potential in COPD studies.