0000000000306861
AUTHOR
Peter Bachert
showing 2 related works from this author
Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of airways in humans with use of hyperpolarized3He
1996
The nuclear spin polarization of noble gases can be enhanced strongly by laser optical pumping followed by electron-nuclear polarization transfer. Direct optical pumping of metastable 3He atoms has been shown to produce enormous polarization on the order of 0.4-0.6. This is about 105 times larger than the polarization of water protons at thermal equilibrium used in conventional MRI. We demonstrate that hyperpolarized 3 He gas can be applied to nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of organs with air-filled spaces in humans. In vivo 3 He MR experiments were performed in a whole-body MR scanner with a superconducting magnet ramped down to 0.8 T. Anatomical details of the upper respiratory tract …
Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging with hyperpolarised helium-3
1996
Abstract Summary Background Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) relies on magnetisation of hydrogen nuclei (protons) of water molecules in tissue as source of the signal. This technique has been valuable for studying tissues that contain significant amounts of water, but biological settings with low proton content, notably the lungs, are difficult to image. We report use of spin-polarised helium-3 for lung MRI. Methods A volunteer inhaled hyperpolarised 3 He to fill the lungs, which were imaged with a conventional MRI detector assembly. The nuclear spin polarisation of helium, and other noble gases, can be greatly enhanced by laser optical pumping and is about 10 5 times larger than the polari…