Detecting pulmonary capillary blood pulsations using hyperpolarized xenon‐129 chemical shift saturation recovery (CSSR) MR spectroscopy

PURPOSE: To investigate whether chemical shift saturation recovery (CSSR) MR spectroscopy with hyperpolarized xenon-129 is sensitive to the pulsatile nature of pulmonary blood flow during the cardiac cycle. METHODS: A CSSR pulse sequence typically uses radiofrequency (RF) pulses to saturate the magnetization of xenon-129 dissolved in lung tissue followed, after a variable delay time, by an RF excitation and subsequent acquisition of a free-induction decay. Thereby it is possible to monitor the uptake of xenon-129 by lung tissue and extract physiological parameters of pulmonary gas exchange. In the current studies, the delay time was instead held at a constant value, which permitted observation of xenon-129 gas uptake as a function of breath-hold time. CSSR studies were performed in 13 subjects (10 healthy, 2 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [COPD], 1 second-hand smoke exposure), holding their breath at total lung capacity. RESULTS: The areas of the tissue/plasma and the red-blood-cell peaks in healthy subjects varied by an average of 1.7±0.7% and 15.1±3.8%, respectively, during the cardiac cycle. In 2 subjects with COPD these peak pulsations were not detectable during at least part of the measurement period. CONCLUSION: CSSR spectroscopy is sufficiently sensitive to detect oscillations in the xenon-129 gas-uptake rate associated with the cardiac cycle.