Distribution of ventilation in lung transplant recipients: evaluation by dynamic 3He-MRI with lung motion correction.

Rationale And Objectives: The ability of motion corrected dynamic 3He-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to discriminate distributional patterns of inhaled hyperpolarized 3He between different groups of lung transplant recipients was evaluated.

Methods: An ultrafast low-angle shot 2D sequence (temporal resolution 128 ms) was used for ventilation 3He-MRI of 11 single and 6 double lung transplant recipients. After digital motion correction, signal kinetics were evaluated in a tracheal and 7 pulmonary regions of interest.