NORMAL AND ABNORMAL PULMONARY VENTILATION - VISUALIZATION AT HYPERPOLARIZED HE-3 MR-IMAGING

To assess the feasibility of helium-3 magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with a three-dimensional fast low-angle shot (FLASH) sequence, He-3 ga s (volume, 300 mt; pressure, 3 x 10(5) Pa; polarized up to 45% by mean s of optimal pumping) was inhaled by five healthy volunteers and five patients with pulmonary diseases. All breath-hold examinations (22 - 4 2 seconds) were completed successfully. Normal ventilation tvas depict ed with homogeneous high signal intensity, lesions were depicted as ca using defects, and obstructive lung disease was depicted with severely inhomogeneous signal intensity.