Hyperpolarized 3He is used to non-destructively probe by NMR the structure of custom-made and commercial silica aerogels (97% and 98.5% porous). Large spin-echo signals are obtained at room temperature and very low magnetic field (2 mT) even with small amounts of gas. Attenuation induced by applied field gradients results from the combined effects of gas diffusion and confinement by the porous medium on atomic motion. Nitrogen is used as a buffer gas to reach equivalent 3He pressures ranging from 5 mbars to 3.5 bars. The observed pressure dependence suggests a nonuniform structure of the aerogels on length scales up to tens of micrometers. A description by broad phenomenological distributions of mean free paths is proposed, and quantitatively discussed by comparison to numerical calculations. The investigated aerogel samples exhibit different effective diffusion characteristics despite comparable nominal porosities.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1997130 | DOI Listing |
J Magn Reson Open
December 2023
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
In light of the growing interest deuterium metabolic imaging, hyperpolarized C, N, He, and Xe imaging, as well as P spectroscopy and imaging in large animals on clinical MR scanners, we demonstrate the use of a (radio)frequency converter system to allow X-nuclear MR spectroscopy (MRS) and MR imaging (MRI) on standard clinical MRI scanners without multinuclear capability. This is not only an economical alternative to the multinuclear system (MNS) provided by the scanner vendors, but also overcomes the frequency bandwidth problem of some vendor-provided MNSs that prohibit users from applications with X-nuclei of low magnetogyric ratio, such as deuterium (6.536 MHz/Tesla) and N (-4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCOPD
December 2023
Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, Canada.
Pulmonary imaging measurements using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) have the potential to deepen our understanding of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by measuring airway and parenchymal pathologic information that cannot be provided by spirometry. Currently, MRI and CT measurements are not included in mortality risk predictions, diagnosis, or COPD staging. We evaluated baseline pulmonary function, MRI and CT measurements alongside imaging texture-features to predict 10-year all-cause mortality in ex-smokers with ( = 93; 31 females; 70 ± 9years) and without ( = 69; 29 females, 69 ± 9years) COPD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFront Physiol
August 2023
Department of Radiology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, United States.
The purpose of this study was to anatomically correlate ventilation defects with regions of air trapping by whole lung, lung lobe, and airway segment in the context of airway mucus plugging in asthma. A total of 34 asthmatics [13M:21F, 13 mild/moderate, median age (range) of 49.5 (36.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcad Radiol
December 2023
Centre for Heart Lung Innovation, St. Paul's Hospital and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Rationale And Objectives: The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) and upper limit of normal (ULN) for MRI ventilation defect percent (VDP) were previously reported for hyperpolarized He gas MRI. Hyperpolarized Xe VDP is more sensitive to airway dysfunction than He, therefore the objective of this study was to determine the ULN and MCID for Xe MRI VDP in healthy and asthma participants.
Materials And Methods: We retrospectively evaluated healthy and asthma participants who underwent spirometry and XeMRI on a single visit; participants with asthma completed the asthma control questionnaire (ACQ-7).
Br J Radiol
June 2023
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Faculty of Medicine, Kiel, Germany.
The need for airway imaging is defined by the limited sensitivity of common clinical tests like spirometry, lung diffusion (DLCO) and blood gas analysis to early changes of peripheral airways and to inhomogeneous regional distribution of lung function deficits. Therefore, X-ray and computed tomography (CT) are frequently used to complement the standard tests.As an alternative, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers radiation-free lung imaging, but at lower spatial resolution.
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