Olaf Dietrich1, Sven F. Thieme, Daniel
Maxien, Konstantin Nikolaou, Stefan O. Schoenberg2, Maximilian F.
Reiser1, Christian Fink2
1Josef Lissner Laboratory
for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Clinical Radiology, Ludwig Maximilian
University of Munich, Munich, Germany; 2Department of Clinical
Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Center Mannheim, Medical
Faculty Mannheim - Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
The feasibility of oxygen-enhanced lung MRI (O2-MRI) at 3 Tesla was assessed and compared to 1.5 Tesla. 13 volunteers underwent O2-MRI at 1.5 and 3 Tesla. The mean relative signal enhancement due to oxygen inhalation was 13% ( 5.6%) at 1.5 T and 9.0% ( 8.0%) at 3 T. The regional coefficient of variation was significantly higher at 3 T due to a considerably less homogeneous signal-enhancement distribution. The SNR showed a trend to slightly higher values at 3 T. Oxygen-enhanced pulmonary MRI is feasible at 3 Tesla; however, the signal enhancement is more heterogeneous and slightly lower than at 1.5 T.