Yulin V. Chang1,
James D. Quirk2, Iulian C. Ruset3, Jeffrey J. Atkinson4,
F. William Hersman3, Jason C. Woods2
1Radiology,
Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO, United States; 2Radiology,
Washington University, St. Louis, MO, United States; 3Xemed LLC,
Durham, NH, United States; 4Department of Medicine, Washington
University, St. Louis, MO, United States
Xenon-129 is a unique contrast agent in lung MRI because of its solubility in lung tissue and blood. Hyperpolarized 129Xe gives high MRI signals that allow detection of the uptake of dissolved-129Xe in the lung. It has been preiveously demonstrated that the uptake dynamics of xenon can be used for quantification of lung function. In this work we present our first in-human study to quanfify lung function and structure using dissolved hyperpolarized 129Xe dynamics. We show that by using our previeously developed model of xenon exchange we can measure a range of critical pulmonary parameters, including septal wall thickness, surface-area-to-volume ratio, etc.