Functional lung imaging with ultrashort echo times achieved by half pulses

Motivation: While ventilation and perfusion mapping in lung can be realized by Cartesian imaging, low signal intensities, due to rapid relaxation, remain challenging and ultrashort echo times might improve robustness. Currently, the promising approach of half pulse excitation for 2D-UTE imaging was not yet employed for functional lung imaging. Goal(s): To evaluate the suitability of half pulse excitation for functional lung imaging. Approach: Functional lung imaging was performed in a healthy volunteer by radial acquisitions after sinc or half pulse excitation. Results: Complex sum of two half pulse acquisitions provides morphological depiction of lung tissue and ventilation maps, but no information on lung perfusion. Impact: The use of half pulses for functional lung imaging did not provide an improvement, as no information on perfusion can be gained. Therefore, other approaches are necessary to improve robustness in the detection of pathologies characterized by ventilation-perfusion mismatches.