Measurement of nonlinear pO2 decay in mouse lungs using 3He-MRI

Multi-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: state of the art and future directions

With the development of heteronuclear fluorine, sodium, phosphorus, and other probes and imaging technologies as well as the optimization of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment and sequences, multi-nuclear magnetic resonance (multi-NMR) has enabled localize molecular activities in vivo that are central to a variety of diseases, including cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative pathologies, metabolic diseases, kidney, and tumor, to shift from the traditional morphological imaging to the molecular imaging, precision diagnosis, and treatment mode. However, due to the low natural abundance and low gyromagnetic ratios, the clinical application of multi-NMR has been hampered. Several techniques have been developed to amplify the NMR sensitivity such as the dynamic nuclear polarization, spin-exchange optical pumping, and brute-force polarization. Meanwhile, a wide range of nuclei can be hyperpolarized, such as ²H, ³He, ¹³C, ¹⁵ N, ³¹P, and ¹²⁹Xe. The signal can be increased and allows real-time observation of biological perfusion, metabolite transport, and metabolic reactions in vivo, overcoming the disadvantages of conventional magnetic resonance of low sensitivity. HP-NMR imaging of different nuclear substrates provides a unique opportunity and invention to map the metabolic changes in various organs without invasive procedures. This review aims to focus on the recent applications of multi-NMR technology not only in a range of preliminary animal experiments but also in various disease spectrum in human. Furthermore, we will discuss the future challenges and opportunities of this multi-NMR from a clinical perspective, in the hope of truly bridging the gap between cutting-edge molecular biology and clinical applications.

Preclinical hyperpolarized 129 Xe MRI: ventilation and T2 * mapping in mouse lungs at 7 T using multi-echo flyback UTE

Fast apparent transverse relaxation (short T2 *) is a common obstacle when attempting to perform quantitative 1 H MRI of the lungs. While T2 * times are longer for pulmonary hyperpolarized (HP) gas functional imaging (in particular for gaseous 129 Xe), T2 * can still lead to quantitative inaccuracies for sequences requiring longer echo times (such as diffusion weighted images) or longer readout duration (such as spiral sequences). This is especially true in preclinical studies, where high magnetic fields lead to shorter relaxation times than are typically seen in human studies. However, the T2 * of HP 129 Xe in the most common animal model of human disease (mice) has not been reported. Herein, we present a multi-echo radial flyback imaging sequence and use it to measure HP 129 Xe T2 * at 7 T under a variety of respiratory conditions. This sequence mitigates the impact of T1 relaxation outside the animal by using multiple gradient-refocused echoes to acquire images at a number of effective echo times for each RF excitation. After validating the sequence using a phantom containing water doped with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, we measured the 129 Xe T2 * in vivo for 10 healthy C57Bl/6 J mice and found T2 * ~ 5 ms in the lung airspaces. Interestingly, T2 * was relatively constant over all experimental conditions, and varied significantly with sex, but not age, mass, or the O2 content of the inhaled gas mixture. These results are discussed in the context of T2 * relaxation within porous media.

129 Xe chemical shift in human blood and pulmonary blood oxygenation measurement in humans using hyperpolarized 129 Xe NMR

PURPOSE

To evaluate the dependency of the 129 Xe-red blood cell (RBC) chemical shift on blood oxygenation, and to use this relation for noninvasive measurement of pulmonary blood oxygenation in vivo with hyperpolarized 129 Xe NMR.

METHODS

Hyperpolarized 129 Xe was equilibrated with blood samples of varying oxygenation in vitro, and NMR was performed at 1.5 T and 3 T. Dynamic in vivo NMR during breath hold apnea was performed at 3 T on two healthy volunteers following inhalation of hyperpolarized 129 Xe.

RESULTS

The 129 Xe chemical shift in RBCs was found to increase nonlinearly with blood oxygenation at 1.5 T and 3 T. During breath hold apnea, the 129 Xe chemical shift in RBCs exhibited a periodic time modulation and showed a net decrease in chemical shift of ∼1 ppm over a 35 s breath hold, corresponding to a decrease of 7-10 % in RBC oxygenation. The 129 Xe-RBC signal amplitude showed a modulation with the same frequency as the 129 Xe-RBC chemical shift.

CONCLUSION

The feasibility of using the 129 Xe-RBC chemical shift to measure pulmonary blood oxygenation in vivo has been demonstrated. Correlation between 129 Xe-RBC signal and 129 Xe-RBC chemical shift modulations in the lung warrants further investigation, with the aim to better quantify temporal blood oxygenation changes in the cardiopulmonary vascular circuit. Magn Reson Med 77:1399-1408, 2017. © 2016 The Authors Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

(3)He pO2 mapping is limited by delayed-ventilation and diffusion in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

PURPOSE

Lung pO2 mapping with (3)He MRI assumes that the sources of signal decay with time during a breath-hold are radiofrequency depolarization and oxygen-dependent T1 relaxation, but the method is sensitive to other sources of spatio-temporal signal change such as diffusion. The purpose of this work was to assess the use of (3)He pO2 mapping in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

METHODS

Ten patients with moderate to severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were scanned with a 3D single breath-hold pO2 mapping sequence.

RESULTS

Images showed signal increasing over time in some lung regions due to delayed ventilation during breath-hold. Regions of physically unrealistic negative pO2 values were seen in all patients, and regional mean pO2 values of -0.3 bar were measured in the two patients most affected by delayed ventilation (where mean time to signal onset was 3-4 s).

CONCLUSIONS

Movement of gas within the lungs during breath-hold causes regional changes in signal over time that are not related to oxygen concentration, leading to erroneous pO2 measurements using the linear oxygen-dependent signal decay model. These spatio-temporal sources of signal change cannot be reliably separated at present, making pO2 mapping using this methodology unreliable in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with significant bullous emphysema or delayed ventilation.

Biomedical imaging with hyperpolarized noble gases

Hyperpolarized noble gases (HNGs), polarized to approximately 50% or higher, have led to major advances in magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of porous structures and air-filled cavities in human subjects, particularly the lung. By boosting the available signal to a level about 100 000 times higher than that at thermal equilibrium, air spaces that would otherwise appear as signal voids in an MR image can be revealed for structural and functional assessments. This review discusses how HNG MR imaging differs from conventional proton MR imaging, how MR pulse sequence design is affected and how the properties of gas imaging can be exploited to obtain hitherto inaccessible information in humans and animals. Current and possible future imaging techniques, and their application in the assessment of normal lung function as well as certain lung diseases, are described.

Regional determination of oxygen uptake in rodent lungs using hyperpolarized gas and an analytical treatment of intrapulmonary gas redistribution

A method is presented which allows for the accurate extraction of regional functional metrics in rodent lungs using hyperpolarized gas. The technique is based on the combination of measured T(1) decay, an independent measure of specific ventilation and mass balance considerations to extract the regional oxygen levels and uptake. In phantom and animal experiments, it is demonstrated that the redistribution of gas during the measurement is a significant confounding factor, and this effect is addressed analytically. The resulting parameterization of gas flow increases the accuracy of oxygen-sensitive MRI, and may also be used independently to assess air trapping and airway constriction. Limitations of the technique with respect to spatial resolution and robustness are also discussed.

Lung perfusion measured using magnetic resonance imaging: New tools for physiological insights into the pulmonary circulation

Since the lung receives the entire cardiac output, sophisticated imaging techniques are not required in order to measure total organ perfusion. However, for many years studying lung function has required physiologists to consider the lung as a single entity: in imaging terms as a single voxel. Since imaging, and in particular functional imaging, allows the acquisition of spatial information important for studying lung function, these techniques provide considerable promise and are of great interest for pulmonary physiologists. In particular, despite the challenges of low proton density and short T2* in the lung, noncontrast MRI techniques to measure pulmonary perfusion have several advantages including high reliability and the ability to make repeated measurements under a number of physiologic conditions. This brief review focuses on the application of a particular arterial spin labeling (ASL) technique, ASL-FAIRER (flow sensitive inversion recovery with an extra radiofrequency pulse), to answer physiologic questions related to pulmonary function in health and disease. The associated measurement of regional proton density to correct for gravitational-based lung deformation (the "Slinky" effect (Slinky is a registered trademark of Pauf-Slinky incorporated)) and issues related to absolute quantification are also discussed.

MRI of the lung: non-invasive protocols and applications to small animal models of lung disease

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used in pre-clinical studies as a non-invasive imaging tool for assessing the morphological and functional impact of lung diseases and for evaluating the efficacy of potential treatments for airways diseases. Hyperpolarized gases ((3)He or (129)Xe) MRI provides insight into the lung ventilation function. Lung proton MRI provides information on lung diseases associated with inflammatory activity or with changes in lung tissue density. These imaging techniques can be implemented with non-invasive protocols appropriate for longitudinal investigations in small animal models of lung diseases. This chapter will detail two (3)He and proton lung MR imaging protocols applied on two models of lung pathology in rodents.

Lung MRI for experimental drug research

Current techniques to evaluate the efficacy of potential treatments for airways diseases in preclinical models are generally invasive and terminal. In the past few years, the flexibility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to obtain anatomical and functional information of the lung has been explored with the scope of developing a non-invasive approach for the routine testing of drugs in models of airways diseases in small rodents. With MRI, the disease progression can be followed in the same animal. Thus, a significant reduction in the number of animals used for experimentation is achieved, as well as minimal interference with their well-being and physiological status. In addition, under certain circumstances the duration of the observation period after disease onset can be shortened since the technique is able to detect changes before these are reflected in parameters of inflammation determined using invasive procedures. The objective of this article is to briefly address MRI techniques that are being used in experimental lung research, with special emphasis on applications. Following an introduction on proton techniques and MRI of hyperpolarized gases, the attention is shifted to the MRI analysis of several aspects of lung disease models, including inflammation, ventilation, emphysema, fibrosis and sensory nerve activation. The next subject concerns the use of MRI in pharmacological studies within the context of experimental lung research. A final discussion points towards advantages and limitations of MRI in this area.