British researchers have developed a process using specially treated krypton gas as an inhalable contrast agent to enhance MRI lung scans.
According to researchers from the University of Nottingham, the gas accentuates the space inside a patient's lungs for better MR images and eventually may allow doctors to virtually see inside the lungs. The novel imaging technique, called inhaled hyperpolarized gas MRI, uses lasers to "hyperpolarize" the inert gas, which aligns the nuclei of the gas so it can be detected on an MRI. The findings were published online 9 March in the U.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The work could make 3D imaging with agents such as helium, xenon, or krypton possible in a single breath-hold. The technique could also be used to hyperpolarize another noble gas, xenon-129, leading to less expensive production of this contrast agent. Nottingham pioneered hyperpolarized krypton MRI and is currently advancing this technology toward the clinical approval process, according to a statement from the university.
As part of a recent Medical Research Council funding award, hyperpolarized krypton-83 is currently being developed for 7-tesla whole-body MRI.
