Stephen J. Kadlecek1, Yinan Xu1, Kiarash Emami1, Yi Xin1, Puttisarn Mongkolwisetwara1, Hooman Hamedani1, Harrison McAdams2, Masaru Ishii3, Rahim R. Rizi1
1Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 2Biological Basis of Behavior Program, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 3Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
An improved method to image PAO2 maps in human lungs is proposed using parallel accelerated HP 3He MRI. Using computational models and phantoms it is shown that when used effectively, accelerated undersampled imaging can lead to a more accurate measure of oxygen tension in the lungs. Technique feasibility and advantage is demonstrated in a healthy human subject. The improvement in PAO2 accuracy is linked to the more efficient use of the finite polarization of HP gas and by increased weighting of the O2-induced contrast versus RF-induced signal decay. Potential confounding factors, e.g., image artifacts or blurring due to accelerated reconstruction, are not observed in this study.