Magnetic resonance imaging method

US6370415B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• MEDI-PHYSICS, INC. · US

Inventors

• Norbert Weiler · Kaiserslautern, DE
• Balthasar Eberle · Hahnheim, DE
• Wolfgang Schreiber · Mainz, DE
• Klaus Markstaller · Ingelheim am Rhein, DE
• Hans-Ulrich Kauczor · Wiesbaden, DE
• Timothy Roberts · Tucson, US
• Werner Heil · Lupfig, CH
• Reinhard Surkau · Traunstein, DE
• Anselm Deninger · Germering, DE
• Lars Lauer · Neunkirchen, DE
• Tino Grossmann · Mainz, DE
• Michael Ebert · New York, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 10, 1998
• Grant date: Apr 9, 2002
• Expiry date: Apr 10, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01R33/5601
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

The invention provides a method of detecting regional variations in oxygen uptake from the lungs of an air-breathing animal subject, said method comprising administering into the lungs of said subject a diagnostically effective amount of a gaseous hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging agent, detecting the magnetic resonance signal from said agent in said lungs, determining the temporal variation in relaxation rate for said signal for at least one region of interest within said lungs, and from said variation generating a qualitative or quantitative value or image indicative of the oxygen uptake from the alveolar space in said at least one region of interest.