研究人員開發了兩種新型非侵入性技術，能夠更加精確地在肺活動的時候觀察肺內情況，從而能夠在其他影象學檢查方法能夠明確檢查之前，即可早期診斷疾病，例如肺氣腫。

超極化氦氣(3He)能夠幫助放射科醫生在氣體進出的時候觀察肺部，生成高清晰度人呼吸影像。聯合使用幾種影像技術，能夠允許研究人員測定這些氦氣分子的彌散率，這能夠反應肺泡的大小。

使用另外一種新型核磁共振技術，賓夕法尼亞州大學醫學院的影像研究人員正在將肺內觀察水平變得更加精細，直至細胞和細胞內水平。研究人員研發了一種方法，他們希望能夠尋找機體內的疾病標志物。在動物模型中，研究人員注射極化碳13標記的分子，并實時觀察它的轉化。因此賓夕法尼亞州大學醫學院研究人員能夠觀察在細胞內代謝過程的碳13標記分子影像。

Penn研究人員希望在2007年末的時候將該技術應用于人類。

MRI Techniques for Earlier Detection of Lung Disease
 
Researchers have developed two new, non-invasive techniques to visualize more closely inside the working lungs, leading to early detection of diseases, such as emphysema, before it becomes evident in other imaging modes.

Hyperpolarized helium (3He) gas allows radiologists to observe the lung as gas flows in and out, giving them high-resolution images of human ventilation. Combining several imaging techniques enables researchers to measure the rate of diffusion of these helium gas molecules, which reflect the size of the air sacs in the lung.

Utilizing another new MR technique, Penn imaging researchers are driving the scale of what is seen in the lung down to an even smaller level--to that of the cellular and intracellular. Researchers have developed a method with which they hope to look for disease markers in the body. In animal models, researchers inject polarized carbon-13-labeled molecules and visualize its conversion in real-time. Thus, Penn researchers can image carbon-13-labeled molecules as they move through the metabolic processes in the cell.

Penn researchers hope to translate this technique for use in humans before the end of 2007.