Rapid Pulmonary 129Xe Ventilation Imaging with Zigzag Sampling

Motivation: The acquisition time of ventilation imaging with 129Xe MRI under breath-hold condition (~10s) is still too long, and might be intolerable for patients with severe pulmonary diseases. Goal(s): To develop a rapid method for ventilation imaging in human by using 129Xe MRI, enabling assessment of ventilation function changes caused by lung diseases. Approach: Zigzag sampling based on the sequence of gradient echo (GRE-zigzag) was developed for ventilation imaging with 129Xe MRI. Results: By using the proposed method, ventilation imaging with a spatial resolution of 4mm×4mm×9mm could be acquired within 2.2 s. Impact: Zigzag sampling was used for accelerating ventilation imaging with 129Xe MRI, shortening the acquisition time to 2.2s, which might prompt its clinical application, especially for those patients who could not hold the breath for a long time.