Guilhem Collier1, Tadeusz Palasz1, Bartosz Glowacz1, Anna Wojna1, Zbigniew Olejniczak2, Mateusz Suchanek3, Tomasz Dohnalik1
1Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Malopolska, Poland; 2Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Malopolska, Poland; 3Agricultural University of Cracow, Krakow, Malopolska, Poland
Imaging of air spaces in the lungs with magnetic resonance became possible thanks to the use of hyperpolarized noble gases such as helium-3. MEOP process has been studied by our group for several years in non-standard conditions (magnetic field > 0.5T and pressures > 10mbar) in order to increase its efficiency. Following the promising results obtained during these systematic studies (the production rate being improved by an order of magnitude compared to the best results obtained in standard conditions), a prototype of high field polarizer working inside a medical scanner at 1.5T was designed and successfully used for human lung MRI.