| Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with hyperpolarized noble gases (HNG), 3He or 129Xe, has become a promising approach for studying lung anatomy and function. Unlike conventional MR imaging, the magnetization in HNG MR is independent of the magnetic field strength. This means that no improvement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is expected with increasing clinical field strength above ∼0.25T. Furthermore, it has been predicted that the SNR may decline at clinical field strength due to decreases in the apparent transverse relaxation time (T2*), caused by the increased magnetic susceptibility induced field gradients at the air-tissue interface. In this thesis the magnetic field strength dependence of T2* and SNR in HNG MR is investigated experimentally in rodent and human lungs.;For rodent imaging, a novel broad-band (0.1-100MHz) variable field strength MR imaging system for rodents was built. This system permitted imaging of 129Xe, 3He and 1H at low magnetic field strengths (3-73.5mT) to experimentally investigate the field dependence of HNG imaging SNR in rodent lungs. In vivo 129Xe and 3He signals were acquired at 73.5mT and T 2* was estimated to be approximately 180+/-8 ms, in good agreement with previously reported values.;At 73.5mT, image noise is dominated by losses originated from the radiofrequency (RF) coils. To address this issue, RF coils were built using different types of copper wire and compared in phantoms and in vivo in rat lungs using hyperpolarized 3He and 129Xe gas. An SNR improvement of up to 200% was obtained with Litz wire compared to conventional copper wire. This improvement demonstrated the feasibility of HNG lung imaging in rodents at 73.5mT with SNR comparable to that obtained at clinical field strengths.;To verify the SNR field dependence in humans, hyperpolarized 3He lung imaging at two commonly used clinical field strengths (1.5T and 3T) was performed in the same volunteers and compared. No significant differences in SNR were obtained between the two systems after correction for flip angle, T2*, gas polarization and MR system perfonnance. Nevertheless, the increased T 2* at 1.5T compared to 3T was estimated to provide a signal increased of 6-7% and could potentially be higher using narrower band-width imaging sequences.;Keywords: hyperpolarized noble gases, low field MR imaging, lung, 3He, 129Xe, SNR comparison, Litz wire, RF coils, T2*. |
