| Popis: |
A novel blood pool agent, based on hyperpolarized helium3 (HP 3He), was investigated for tissue perfusion using MRI. The results are reported in this paper. Thanks to the considerable polarization value obtained by optical pumping process, HP 3He has already demonstrated a great potential for anatomical and functional lung ventilation studies (1,2). In order to benefit from this large polarization and NMR signal advantages, we have studied the feasibility of this new contrast agent for perfusion imaging. To overcome the problem of the low helium solubility in blood, methods based on helium transportation using carrier agents have been investigated (3). In our study, a phospholipid-based substrate has been developed for helium encapsulation. Injections of 3m-diameter microbubble solutions have been used for in vivo intravascular imaging. In this work, the lung parenchyma perfusion imaging (4) as well as imaging of the coronary arteries (5) and myocardium perfusion are investigated. |
