129 Xe chemical shift in human blood and pulmonary blood oxygenation measurement in humans using hyperpolarized 129 Xe NMR

Purpose: To evaluate the dependency of the 129 Xe-red blood cell (RBC) chemical shift on blood oxygenation, and to use this relation for noninvasive measurement of pulmonary blood oxygenation in vivo with hyperpolarized 129 Xe NMR. Methods: Hyperpolarized 129 Xe was equilibrated with blood samples of varying oxygenation in vitro, and NMR was performed at 1.5 T and 3 T. Dynamic in vivo NMR during breath hold apnea was performed at 3 T on two healthy volunteers following inhala- tion of hyperpolarized 129 Xe. Results: The 129 Xe chemical shift in RBCs was found to increase nonlinearly with blood oxygenation at 1.5 T and 3 T. During breath hold apnea, the 129 Xe chemical shift in RBCs exhibited a periodic time modulation and showed a net decrease in chemical shift of ~ 1 ppm over a 35 s breath hold, corresponding to a decrease of 7–10 % in RBC oxygenation. The 129 Xe-RBC signal amplitude showed a modulation with the same frequency as the 129 Xe-RBC chemical shift. Conclusion: The feasibility of using the 129 Xe-RBC chemical shift to measure pulmonary blood oxygenation in vivo has been dem- onstrated. Correlation between 129 Xe-RBC signal and 129 Xe-RBC chemical shift modulations in the lung warrants further investiga- tion, with the aim to better quantify temporal blood oxygenation changes in the cardiopulmonary vascular circuit