Polarized Xenon Production Multi-liter Accumulation

描述(由申请人提供)： 自从近十年前作为核磁共振成像试剂首次展示以来，超极化氙气的前景吸引了研究界的注意。它可以通过呼吸非侵入性地进入受试者体内，并具有众所周知的短期生物学效应。相对于超极化氦，它的优势在于它的天然丰度和低成本。超极化的氙气和氦气在肺部成像和肺部疾病的量化方面都显示出了很好的作用。然而，与氦不同的是，超极化的氙气在流体和组织中具有很高的溶解度和特征的化学位移，在溶解相成像中揭示了它的微观环境。因此，其转运和吸收的时间依赖性为血流灌注的功能成像提供了前景。使用NIH R21和R15基金，UNH团队展示了一种新型的氙气偏振器，它能以相对较高的速度和较低的压力使气体混合物沿着与激光相反的方向流动。这种偏振器的偏振度超过20%，生产速度超过每小时4升。这种偏振器的品质因数(偏振乘以生产率)目前比所有其他偏振器技术都高出一个数量级。 通常用于积累超极化氙气的技术，在液氮浴中冷冻，不太适合积累多升的量。我们要求STTR提供资金，以开发和测试一种新的、可扩展的方法来积累无限量的超极化氙气。这种积累超极化气体的新方法将扩大我们世界领先的超极化氙气生产设备的能力。这一开发有助于将这种实验室设备转换为基于医院的实用设备。 超极化气体已经在诊断和量化肺部疾病方面发挥了作用。我们提出了技术、生理和经济方面的论点，即超极化氙气可以而且可能会在广泛的诊断成像方案中作为造影剂的选择。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Since its first demonstration as an imaging agent in MRI nearly a decade ago, the promise of hyperpolarized xenon has captured the attention of the research community. It can be introduced into a subject non-invasively by breathing, and has a well-understood short-term biological effect. Relative to hyperpolarized helium, its advantages include its natural abundance and low cost. Both hyperpolarized xenon and helium have demonstrated utility in lung imaging, and quantifying lung disease. In contrast to helium, however, hyperpolarized xenon has a high solubility in fluids and tissues and a characteristic chemical shift, revealing its microscopic environment in dissolved-phase imaging. Consequently, the time dependence of its transport and absorption offer prospects for functional imaging of perfusion. Using NIH R21 and R15 funds, the UNH group demonstrated a new type of xenon polarizer that flows the gas mixture at relatively high velocity and low pressure along a direction opposite to the laser beam. This polarizer demonstrated polarization of over 20% for a production rate of over four liters per hour. The figure-of-merit (polarization times production rate) of this polarizer presently exceeds all other polarizer technologies by an order of magnitude. The technology routinely used to accumulate hyperpolarized xenon, freezing in a liquid-nitrogen bath, is not well suited to accumulating multi-liter quantities. We request STTR funding to develop and test a novel, scalable approach to accumulating unlimited quantities of hyperpolarized xenon. This new method of accumulating the hyperpolarized gas will extend the capacity of our world-leading hyperpolarized xenon production apparatus. This development helps to convert this laboratory installation to a practical hospital based device. Hyperpolarized gas has already demonstrated utility in diagnosing and quantifying lung disease. We present technological, physiological, and economic arguments that hyperpolarized xenon can and perhaps will surpass gadolinium as the contrast agent of choice in a broad spectrum of diagnostic imaging protocols.