Effects of pulmonary inhalation on hyperpolarized krypton-83 magnetic resonance T1 relaxation

The (83)Kr magnetic resonance (MR) relaxation time T(1) of krypton gas in contact with model surfaces was previously found to be highly sensitive to surface composition, surface-to-volume ratio, and surface temperature. The work presented here explored aspects of pulmonary (83)Kr T(1) relaxation measurements in excised lungs from healthy rats using hyperpolarized (hp) (83)Kr with approximately 4.4% spin polarization. MR spectroscopy without spatial resolution was applied to the ex vivo lungs that actively inhale hp (83)Kr through a custom designed ventilation system. Various inhalation schemes were devised to study the influence of anatomical dead space upon the measured (83)Kr T(1) relaxation times. The longitudinal (83)Kr relaxation times in the distal airways and the respiratory zones were independent of the lung inhalation volume, with T(1) = 1.3 s and T(1) = 1.0 s, depending only on the applied inhalation scheme. The obtained data were highly reproducible between different specimens. Further, the (83)Kr T(1) relaxation times in excised lungs were unaffected by the presence of up to 40% oxygen in the hp gas mixture. The results support the possible importance of (83)Kr as a biomarker for evaluating lung function.