Imaging airways

A group of University of Queensland scientists from the Centre for Magnetic Resonance and the Department of Physics have successfully developed a hyperpolarised helium gas that can be used to help image the lungs in an MRI scanner.

Dr Marlies Friese said the University of Queensland team recently produced sufficient gas for a human subject to inhale, and when they did so, the researchers were then able to create an image of an individual's airways.

Friese said the team had previously done similar experiments using hyperpolarised helium imported from Germany.

She said: 'The gas is helium-3, it is inert, is not radioactive and does not react with the body so it is safe to inhale. This type of image is useful because we can obtain data on gas flow and breathing. It can show how gases flow in the lung, and whether regions of the lung are ventilated normally, abnormally or not at all.'