Establishing a Standardized Healthy Reference Distribution for Multi-Site 129Xe Gas Exchange MRI Across Major Scanner Platforms

Motivation: Quantitative 129Xe gas exchange MRI, conducted across different imaging centers and scanner platforms, requires consistent healthy reference distributions. Goal(s): To establish standardized reference values from an 18-30yr old multicenter healthy cohort for 129Xe gas exchange MRI. Approach: Participants from three research centers underwent pulmonary function tests and a standardized 129Xe MRI/MRS protocol. Data were processed centrally and corrected for T2*. Results: A balanced multicenter dataset revealed minimal variability between combined and site-specific reference distributions, validating the combined values for cross-center use. The distribution for 208-ppm excitation could be reliably transformed for 218-ppm excitation. Impact: This study provides robust cross-platform reference distributions for 129Xe gas exchange MRI, facilitating comparison of quantitative imaging in multi-center respiratory research.