New ‘polarized nuclear imaging’ technique could provide high-res diagnostics

Physicists at the University of Virginia have developed a new imaging method that combines aspects of both MRI and gamma-ray imaging, a modality that has the potential to create new types of high-resolution medical diagnostics, reported Phys.org.

The technique has been named polarized nuclear imaging and is outlined in a study published today in the journal Nature. Notably, the imaging approach could pave a way to inexpensively visualize space in lungs through having patients inhale an isotope gas.

"This method makes possible a truly new, absolutely different class of medical diagnostics," Wilson Miller, one of the study’s authors, told Phys.org. "We're combining the advantages of using highly detectable nuclear tracers with the spectral sensitivity and diagnostic power of MRI techniques."

Polarized nuclear imaging could also target areas of the body by injecting isotopes into a patient’s bloodstream, with little radioactivity danger for the patient.

To read more about the method, follow the link below.