Quantification of human lung structure and physiology using hyperpolarized 129Xe.

Magn Reson Med

Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Laboratory, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

Published: January 2014

Purpose: To present in vivo, human validation of a previously proposed method to measure key pulmonary parameters related to lung microstructure and physiology. Some parameters, such as blood-air barrier thickness, cannot be measured readily by any other noninvasive modality.

Methods: Healthy volunteers (n = 12) were studied in 1.5T and 3T whole body human scanners using hyperpolarized xenon. Xenon uptake by lung parenchyma and blood was measured using a chemical shift saturation recovery sequence. Both dissolved-xenon peaks at 197 ppm and 217-218 ppm were fitted against a model of xenon exchange (MOXE) as functions of exchange time. Parameters related to lung function and structure can be obtained by fitting to this model.

Results: The following results were obtained from xenon uptake (averaged over all healthy volunteers): surface-area-to-volume ratio = 210 ± 50 cm(-1) ; total septal wall thickness = 9.2 ± 6.5 μm; blood-air barrier thickness = 1.0 ± 0.3 μm; hematocrit = 27 ± 4%; pulmonary capillary blood transit time = 1.3 ± 0.3 s, in good agreement with literature values from invasive experiments. More detailed fitting results are listed in the text.

Conclusion: The initial in vivo human results demonstrate that our proposed methods can be used to noninvasively determine lung physiology by simultaneous quantification of a few important pulmonary parameters. This method is highly promising to become a versatile screening method for lung diseases.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/mrm.24992DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

vivo human
8
pulmonary parameters
8
parameters lung
8
blood-air barrier
8
barrier thickness
8
healthy volunteers
8
xenon uptake
8
thickness μm
8
lung
6
quantification human
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!