January/February 2026 Issue
MRI Monitor: It’s a Gas
By Rebekah Moan
Radiology Today
Vol. 27 No. 1 P. 6
New MRI technology images the lungs in 10 seconds or less.
Radiologists are at a disadvantage when it comes to viewing the lungs. Current technology excels at detecting dense structures, nodules, masses, lesions, and tumors but struggles to assess the overall function of the lung. What is the ventilation like? Is the oxygen and carbon dioxide gas exchange occurring throughout the lungs? It can be difficult to tell. The combination of MRI with a noble gas makes those assessments much easier.
Using hyperpolarized xenon-129 in combination with MRI, radiologists can capture lung function in 10 seconds, sometimes less. The technology surpasses the current method used to measure lung function, spirometry, which is rudimentary, not highly sensitive, and effort-dependent.
The History of Xenon Imaging
The study of xenon has been floating among researchers for decades. It began with helium. In the ’90s, researchers learned that helium can be hyperpolarized. In other words, the magnetic resonance signal of its atomic nuclei can be dramatically increased by aligning its spins to create a much stronger signal than normal. Doing so makes helium visible on MRI. After the September 11 terrorist attack, however, the price of helium increased significantly, limiting its practicality for widespread clinical use.
From there, researchers began to experiment with other noble gases—which do not tend to gain, lose, or share electrons—making them stable, unreactive, and good candidates for MRI because they don’t react with the body. In other words, noble gases are inhaled and exhaled unchanged while following the same route as oxygen in the body.
Capitalizing on that property, medical imaging technology company Polarean created a drug-device combination product, XENOVIEW, using xenon-129. “We’re imaging the gas, not the water content or tissue signal in the lung,” says Polarean CEO Christopher von Jako, PhD. “If there’s any place where the xenon can’t get to, oxygen is not getting there, either. Xenon-129 is a surrogate for oxygen, and after you breathe it out, it’s not in your body anymore.”
XENOVIEW is essentially an inhaled contrast agent for MRI, but there are a few other components necessary to image the lung with the agent. Xenon-129 must be hyperpolarized using circularly polarized laser light. It must also be accurately measured, which is accomplished with a chest coil, the MRI machine itself, and software to analyze the image. Polarean’s XENOVIEW 3T Chest Coil is a flexible, single-channel, transmit-receive radiofrequency coil tuned to image xenon-129 nuclei while a patient is positioned inside MRI machines from three major vendors: GE Healthcare, Philips, and Siemens Healthineers.
“The MRI machine has to have an upgrade that allows it to image xenon,” von Jako says. “The MRI companies call it the ‘multinuclei or multinuclear spectroscopy option,’ which allows MRIs to image nuclei other than standard protons, including carbon-13, phosphorus-31, sodium-23, and, of course, xenon-129, which is the only FDA-approved and reimbursed nucleus today. Currently, that capability is only available on 3T MRI machines.”
Benefits of Xenon-129
XENOVIEW is currently FDA-approved for ventilation, but it is also being studied for visualization and quantification of gas exchange regionally in the smallest airways of the lungs, across the alveolar tissue membrane, and into the pulmonary bloodstream for future clinical indications. “We’re able to see the function of a one-micron membrane,” von Jako says. “When you’re thinking about a CT scan, you can see down to, maybe less than a millimeter, but definitely not down to a micron.” For context, a single strand of human hair averages 70 to 100 microns.
MRI is accurate, noninvasive, and doesn’t involve radiation exposure. That makes it well-suited for anyone who needs repeat imaging and populations, such as children, where radiation exposure is avoided as much as possible. In fact, XENOVIEW has recently been approved for children as young as 6.
Erik Hysinger, MD, MS, a pediatric pulmonologist from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, says, “For years, I’ve studied xenon MRI in children ages 6 to 12, and expanding access to younger patients offers clinicians a powerful tool to characterize disease progression, monitor response to therapy, and guide interventions like airway dilation or tissue removal. This imaging platform enhances our ability to deliver more personalized, precise care for children with complex respiratory conditions.”
Hyperpolarized xenon-129 can support the diagnosis and treatment of conditions including obstructive lung diseases, such as asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, and unexplained dyspnea (breathlessness), which affects approximately 1 in 11 people. “Doctors don’t know what’s happening with unexplained breathlessness,” von Jako says. “We’re excited to get involved and explain what’s happening. But what’s even more exciting is our potential to help assess whether a particular medicine may or may not work for some respiratory conditions.”
That aspect is currently in development. In 2025, Polarean became involved in a phase 2 clinical drug trial of a respiratory product investigating whether xenon MRI is a more sensitive functional imaging tool than spirometry, with the trial expected to commence in 2026. In the meantime, Polarean has mostly focused on large academic medical centers but ultimately wants to get its technology out to as many people as possible.
“We believe it’s game-changing and want to help as many people as possible,” von Jako says.
— Rebekah Moan is a freelance journalist and ghostwriter based in Oakland. Her specialties are health care and profiles.
