We propose the purchase of a Xe-129 gas imaging system for the purpose of advanced MR functional imaging of the lung. The system contains a hyperpolarizer for Xe-129 coupled to a dedicated Xe-129 MRI coil necessary for receiving frequencies at Xe-129 resonance. Further, we propose to use the Xe-129 MRI gas system to complement our dual source/dual energy multi-spectral computed tomography-based evaluations of lung disease and lung treatment efficacies. The polarizer, coil and ancillary equipment included in this proposal will support research in smoking cessation, COPD, asthma, cystic fibrosis, and in the correlations of genetic information to the disease progression in COPD populations. The addition of polarized Xe-129 MR imaging of the lung would provide an important complimentary set of metrics to CT imaging and would allow us to place the unique measures from the two modalities in context with each other. The critical metrics provided by Xe-129 MRI include estimates of regional acinar geometry as well as an assessment of the pathway for gas exchange with Xe-129 providing a uniquely different signal in air, tissue and blood. The Iowa Comprehensive Lung Imaging Center at the University of Iowa consists of a well-integrated group of Physicians, Radiologists, Anesthesiologists, Medical Physicists, Biomedical, Mechanical and Electrical Engineers as well as a strong support team of study coordinators, computer programmers, statisticians all well- funded by the NIH. This team provides significant operational support to numerous large multicenter NIH-sponsored studies including COPDGene, SPIROMICS, SARP, MESA Lung and more.
? Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Polarized Xe-129 gas provides critically important information regarding lung structure and function beyond that available via multi- spectral computed tomography. ? The complimentary metrics provided by Xe-129 gas imaging includes the ability to assess early changes in the structure of the lung at the acinar level (the most peripheral locations of the lung), and it provides a measure of gas movement from the alveolar air space into the tissue and then the blood. ? The ability to monitor the presence and efficiency of this gas transfer provides critical information which, when coupled with advanced CT can serve to provide important insights needed to begin to develop and test new therapeutics aimed at disease etiology rather than symptoms.
