Gas Phase UTE MRI of Propane and Propene

Proton magnetic resonance imaging ((1)H MRI) of gases can potentially enable functional lung imaging to probe gas ventilation and other functions. Here, (1)H MR images of hyperpolarized (HP) and thermally polarized propane gas were obtained using ultrashort echo time (UTE) pulse sequence. A 2-dimensional (2D) image of thermally polarized propane gas with ∼0.9 × 0.9 mm(2) spatial resolution was obtained in <2 seconds, showing that even non-HP hydrocarbon gases can be successfully used for conventional proton magnetic resonance imaging. The experiments were also performed with HP propane gas, and high-resolution multislice FLASH 2D images in ∼510 seconds and non-slice-selective 2D UTE MRI images were acquired in ∼2 seconds. The UTE approach adopted in this study can be potentially used for medical lung imaging. Furthermore, the possibility of combining UTE with selective suppression of (1)H signals from 1 of the 2 gases in a mixture is shown in this MRI study. The latter can be useful for visualizing industrially important processes where several gases may be present, eg, gas–solid catalytic reactions.