129Xe MRI in Pediatric Population With BPD

Hyperpolarized (HP) gas magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the lungs offers additional information that cannot be obtained with CT scan, the current gold standard for imaging this disorder. As a nonionizing technique, MRI is an ideal modality for pulmonary imaging; in particular in the infant and pediatric population. Nevertheless, due to the low proton density of the lung parenchyma (only \~20% that of solid tissues), numerous air-tissue interfaces that lead to rapid signal decay, and cardiac and respiratory sources of motion that further degrade image quality , MRI has played a limited role in the evaluation of lung pathologies. In this setting, HP gas (using 129Xe) MRI may play a role in helping determine the regional distribution of alveolar sizes, partial pressure of oxygen, alveolar wall thickness, and gas transport efficiency of the microvasculature within the lungs of infants with a diagnosis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD).