New Ground Broken in Human MRI Technology

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In a scientific development set to benefit sufferers of respiratory diseases, Australian researchers have pioneered a new imaging approach.

A group of scientists from the Center for Magnetic Resonance and the department of physics at the University of Queensland (UQ; Brisbane Australia) have successfully developed Australia’s first hyperpolarized helium gas for use in human magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Dr. Marlies Friese reported that the UQ team recently produced sufficient gas for a human subject to inhale, and created an image of the person’s airways.

According to Dr. Friese, the team had previously performed similar experiments using hyperpolarized helium imported from Germany. “The gas is helium-3, it is inert, is not radioactive, and does not react with the body so it is safe to inhale. This type of image is useful because we can obtain data on gas flow and breathing--we are the first group in Australia to achieve this. It can show how gases flow in the lung, and whether regions of the lung are ventilated normally, abnormally or not at all. Now we are able to use our locally produced gas, the technology will become more accessible to local researchers and for research of diseases such as asthma and COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].”

Dr. Friese noted that when imaging the lung or other areas where the water content was low, conventional MRI had proved inadequate. “Hyperpolarized helium MRI uses a special technique through which the nuclear magnetic moments of helium atoms are aligned so that MRI signals are enhanced by up to six orders of magnitude,” she said. “The hyperpolarized effect is relatively short lived--it lasts up to 80 hours depending on how the gas is stored and transported, with the effectiveness decreasing during that time.”

Dr. Friese reported that transport from overseas facilities was costly and difficult as transport delays can render the gas useless. The gas was produced in the HP helium laboratory at UQ, which is the only one of its kind in Australia and was supported by a UQ internal infrastructure grant. The lab was set-up through collaborations with Prof. Brian Saam of the University of Utah (Salt Lake City, USA). The facility conducts respiratory research using animal models of disease; however, interest from medical researchers recently directed the team’s efforts towards human imaging.

In the future, the method could potentially be used for diagnosis and monitoring of respiratory disease within a clinical setting, according to the investigators.