A system for open-access He-3 human lung imaging at very low field

Abstract

We describe a prototype system built to allow open-access very-low-field MRI of human lungs using laser-polarized He-3 gas. The system employs an open four-coil electromagnet with an operational B-o held of 4 mT, and planar gradient coils that generate gradient fields up to 0.18 G/cm in the x and y direction and 0.41 C/cm in the z direction. This system was used to obtain H-1 and He-3 phantom images and supine and upright He-3 images of human lungs. We include discussion on challenges unique to imaging at 50-200 kHz, including noise filtering and compensation for narrow-bandwidth coils. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Department

Physics

Publication Date

10-1-2006

Journal Title

Concepts in Magnetic Resonance Part B-Magnetic Resonance Engineering

Publisher

JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1002/cmr.b.20075

Document Type

Article

Rights

© 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. *This article is a US Government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America."

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