Regional Pulmonary Ventilation Measurements by Xenon Enhanced Dynamic Computed Tomography: An Update

Abstract

New developments in computed tomographic technology permit rapid, serial images that may yield information concerning tracer kinetics through a large tissue volume. One possible application of these developments is the derivation of local lung ventilation by observing the temporal changes of stable Xe concentrations. Preliminary results from 6 multilevel ventilation studies in dogs demonstrate that the lung may be repeatedly imaged during reproducible phases of respiration even when interscan table incrementation is employed to survey a number of tissue segments and breathing is permitted between scans. Subanesthetic Xe concentrations also provide adequate enhancement for possible quantification.