MRI of Pulmonary Ventilation

Gas imaging has opened the new field of direct imaging of pulmonary ventilation by MRI. The use of hyperpolarised 3He gas for MRI of the lung has been pioneered by a number of groups worldwide. Due to the enormous progress in the fields of hyperpolarisation technology, administration of hyperpolarised 3He, MR hardware, and MR pulse sequences significant progress has been made and the translation into the clinical arena has been accomplished. This chapter gives an overview of the technical methods for HP 3He MRI for human lung imaging, focusing on gas polarisation methods, background physics, MRI hardware considerations, MRI pulse sequence considerations, safety considerations for imaging inhaled 3He, and pulse sequence design for probing lung physiology and anatomy. Where possible the methods will be highlighted with reference to the literature and illustrated with clinical examples of images from the author’s home group. For further discussion on the growing clinical applications the reader is referred to Chaps. 8, 9 and 10.