ABSTRACT
Pulmonary fluorine-19 (19F) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using inhaled inert fluorinated gases can potentially provide high-quality structural and functional images of the lungs. Inert fluorinated gases have the advantages of being nontoxic, abundant, relatively inexpensive, and the technique can be performed on any MRI scanner with broadband imaging capabilities. In this chapter, the development of inert fluorinated gas MRI, current progress in animal and human imaging, and the future prospects of this technique are discussed. The current state of other lung MR imaging techniques, such as hyperpolarized (HP) noble gas MRI and 1H-based MRI techniques, is also briefly discussed in order to provide some context. Overall, inert fluorinated gas MRI has the potential to be clinically adopted as an inexpensive pulmonary imaging modality that can aid in disease diagnosis.
