MRI with Continuously Flowing Laser-Polarized 3He

Abstract

MRI of laser-polarized 129Xe under continuous flow conditions has recently been used for imaging of porous materials, however, any attempts at using a continuously circulating flow of laser-polarized 3He have not been made until now, presumably due to its extremely long spin exchange time (5-10 hrs). Since the inherent NMR sensitivity of 3He is 80 times greater than that of 129Xe when considering the natural abundance, 3He can be expected to be a better nucleus for imaging than 129Xe even under continuous flow conditions. In this report, the first MRI with continuously flowing laser-polarized 3He is shown for a phantom of Teflon tubing, demonstrating the feasibility of 3He imaging under continuous flow