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ST: Fachverband Strahlen- und Medizinphysik

ST 4: Imaging with Non-Ionizing Radiation

ST 4.1: Talk

Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 11:30–11:45, POT 112

NMR and MRI of continuously dissolved hyperpolarized ¹²⁹Xe by means of hollow fibers — •Nadia Amor¹, Kathrin Hamilton², Markus Küppers¹, Stephan Appelt³, Thomas Schmitz-Rode², Bernhard Blümich¹, and Ulrich Steinseifer² — ¹ITMC of RWTH Aachen University, Germany — ²HIA of RWTH Aachen University, Germany — ³Research Center Jülich, Germany

Various methods of hyperpolarizing (HP) spin systems have been developed during the last years to increase the intrinsically low sensitivity of NMR by several orders of magnitude. Among them is the hyperpolarization of ¹²⁹Xe via Spin Exchange Optical Pumping (SEOP) [ 1 ]. NMR of HP ¹²⁹Xe is of great interest because of its good solubility and its very sensitive chemical shift. The main obstacle for many applications is the efficient and continuous dissolution into carrier agents without formation of foams or bubbles. It has been overcome by the so-called "xenonizer" setups [ 2,3 ]. They mainly consist of commercially available hollow fiber membranes typically used in clinical oxygenators. A purpose-built xenonizer setup has been developed and analyzed in detail by NMR spectroscopy and MRI for varying fiber materials as well as for different fluids, including bio-relevant fluids such as blood, plasma, and erythrocytes. As a result, the xenonizer technology could be further understood and improved, and new applications of HP ¹²⁹Xe for medical NMR were explored.

[ 1 ] B.M. Goodson, J. Magn. Res. 155, 157 (2002)

[ 2 ] D. Baumer et al, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 45, 7282 (2006)

[ 3 ] N. Amor et al, J. Magn. Res. 201, 93 (2009)