[6] RD Black, HL Middleton, GD Cates, GP Cofer, B Driehuys, W Happer, LW Hedlund, GA Johnson, MD Shattuck, JC Swartz, In Vivo He-3 Mr Images of Guinea Pig Lungs, Radiology 199(3):867(4) 1996. PMID:8638019. Citations:102. [pdf]
The authors imaged the lungs of live guinea pigs with hyperpolarized (HP) helium-3 as a magnetic resonance (MR) signal source. HP He-3 gas produced through spin exchange with rubidium metal vapor was delivered through an MR-compatible, small-animal ventilator. Two- and three-dimensional lung images acquired with ventilation-gated, radial k-space sampling showed complete ventilation of both lungs. All images were of high quality, demonstrating that HP He-3 allows high-signal-intensity MR imaging in living systems.
