1Biomedical
Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States; 2Radiology
and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United
States; 3Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, OH, United States; 4Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical
Care, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States; 5Xemed
LLC, Durham, NH, United States; 6Physics, University of New
Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
The characteristics of the red blood cell (RBC) and tissue/plasma components of hyperpolarized xenon-129 dissolved in the human lung are not well established. The purpose of this study was to determine, from whole-lung measurements, the fractions and T2* values for the RBC and tissue/plasma components for healthy and diseased subjects, and explore their dependence on degree of lung inflation. In healthy subjects, RBC fraction and T2*, and tissue/plasma T2*, showed little variation among subjects. RBC fraction and tissue/plasma T2* were found to depend on lung inflation. RBC fraction was significantly lower in the diseased subjects than in healthy subjects.
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