The present invention comprises imaging and quantitative measurement of lung
ventilation, particularly in a human lung. Methods for quantitative imaging of
lung ventilation, and the further provided systems and algorithmic tools therefore,
comprise three primary components: the combined MRI ventilation/perfusion (V/Q)
imaging techniques using hyperpolarized helium-3 (3He) gas (H3He);
the three-dimensional quantitative imaging of absolute lung perfusion (Q) and collection
of local magnetic resonance image data therefrom to produce an absolute lung perfusion
image data; and the algorithmic co-registration of the two image data sets, (HP-3He
MRI image of V/Q and MR imaging of quantitative perfusion (Q) in the lung). From
the data acquired in the combined data sets and their spatial co-registration,
absolute ventilation (V) is computed.
