Hyperpolarised gas filling station for medical imaging using polarised Xe and He.

We report the design, construction, and initial tests of a hyperpolariser to produce polarised Xe and He gas for medical imaging of the lung. The hyperpolariser uses the Spin-Exchange Optical Pumping method to polarise the nuclear spins of the isotopic gas. Batch mode operation was chosen for the design to produce polarised Xe and polarised He.

Achieving high spatial resolution and high SNR in low-field MRI of hyperpolarised gases with Slow Low Angle SHot.

MRI of hyperpolarised gases is usually performed with fast data acquisition to achieve high spatial resolutions despite rapid diffusion-induced signal attenuation. We describe a double-cross k-space sampling scheme suitable for Slow Low Angle SHot (SLASH) acquisition and yielding an increased SNR. It consists of a series of anisotropic partial acquisitions with a reduced resolution in the read direction, which alleviates signal attenuation and still provides a high isotropic resolution.