Regional pulmonary ventilation measurements by xenon enhanced dynamic computed tomography: an update

New developments in computed tomographic technology permit rapid, serial images that may yield information concerning tracer kinetics through a large tissue volume. One possible application of these developments is the derivation of local lung ventilation by observing the temporal changes of stable xenon concentrations. Preliminary results from six multilevel ventilation studies in dogs demonstrate that the lung may be repeatedly imaged during reproducible phases of respiration even when interscan table incrementation is employed to survey a number of tissue segments and breathing is permitted between scans. In addition, subanesthetic xenon concentrations provide adequate enhancement for possible quantification.