Philips and Polarean, a leader in advanced MRI of lung function, have announced the next phase of their strategic partnership aimed at expanding access to radiation-free lung imaging for patients with obstructive lung diseases. The collaboration focuses on enhancing multi-nuclei imaging with Xenon MRI technology, providing clinicians with unprecedented capabilities to detect and monitor respiratory conditions such as asthma and cystic fibrosis.
The innovative technique utilizes hyperpolarized Xenon gas as a signaling agent, allowing healthcare providers to visualize airflow through different regions of the lungs in real-time. This provides critical functional insights that have previously been unattainable with conventional imaging methods.
Expanding Access to Pediatric Patients
Currently, Xenon MRI is FDA-approved for evaluating lung ventilation in adults and children aged 12 and older. The partnership is working toward extending this capability to children as young as six, pending FDA approval. This expansion represents a significant advancement in pediatric respiratory care, enabling earlier detection and safer long-term monitoring without the risks associated with radiation exposure.
Dr. Laura Walkup, Associate Professor in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, emphasized the importance of this development: "By combining Philips' MRI platform with Polarean's Xenon MRI technology, we can now routinely and efficiently visualize how air moves through a child's lungs, without the risks of radiation. This solution transforms our ability to deliver precise, functional insights right at the bedside, accelerating the path from innovation to impact."
Addressing a Critical Unmet Need
Obstructive lung diseases affect over 42 million people in the United States and more than 500 million worldwide, placing a substantial burden on global respiratory health. Despite this prevalence, current imaging techniques often lack the detail necessary to demonstrate how these conditions impact lung function.
The need for safe, accurate, and non-invasive imaging tools to visualize lung ventilation without radiation exposure is particularly urgent in pediatrics. Children with chronic respiratory conditions frequently require repeated imaging to track disease progression and treatment response, making radiation-free alternatives especially valuable.
Streamlined Clinical Workflow
The integration of Xenon MRI into Philips' clinical workflow across 3.0T MRI systems represents a significant technical achievement. Using the FDA-cleared Polarean XENOVIEW 3T Chest Coil, clinicians can now complete scan sessions in under a minute with just two 10-second breath-holds.
A key advantage of this system is the ability to switch seamlessly between Xenon and standard Proton imaging without repositioning the patient or changing coils. This streamlined approach enhances efficiency for imaging teams while improving the patient experience.
Dr. Ioannis Panagiotelis, Business Leader of MRI at Philips, highlighted the transformative potential of this technology: "By integrating the Xenon MRI platform into our advanced 3.0T MRI systems, we're delivering a powerful, non-invasive tool that can transform how we diagnose, monitor, and manage chronic lung disease. This radiation-free technology is especially important for younger patients and has the potential to shift multi-nuclei imaging from research to everyday clinical care."
Enhanced Visualization Capabilities
For the first time, clinicians can directly visualize regional lung ventilation, enabling more accurate disease detection and monitoring. This capability represents a paradigm shift in respiratory imaging, moving beyond anatomical assessment to functional evaluation.
Dr. Christopher von Jako, Chief Executive Officer at Polarean, explained the technical advantages: "Using our FDA-cleared Polarean XENOVIEW 3T Chest Coil, clinicians can perform both Xenon and Proton scans during two 10-second breath-holds without needing to reposition the patient or switch coils. The procedure is intuitive via the Philips user interface and keeps total in-bore time to around one minute."
Future Implications
The partnership between Philips and Polarean aims to make lung imaging more precise, accessible, and patient-friendly. By combining Polarean's specialized technology with Philips' robust MRI platforms, the collaboration is working to transition multi-nuclei imaging from research settings to routine clinical care.
This advancement is particularly significant for pediatric patients with chronic respiratory conditions who require regular monitoring. The radiation-free nature of Xenon MRI eliminates cumulative radiation exposure concerns, while the enhanced visualization capabilities provide clinicians with more detailed information to guide treatment decisions.
As this technology becomes more widely available, it has the potential to fundamentally change the management approach for conditions like asthma and cystic fibrosis, enabling more personalized treatment strategies based on functional lung assessment rather than symptoms or limited structural imaging alone.
