Philips, Polarean Partner on Xenon Lung MRI

Philips has announced the next phase of its strategic partnership with Polarean, a company specializing in advanced MRI of lung function.

The duo aims to increase access to advanced, radiation-free lung MRI for patients with obstructive lung diseases. The collaboration helps clinician better detect and monitor lung conditions like asthma and cystic fibrosis by expanding multi-nuclei imaging with Xenon MRI.

The new technique uses hyperpolarized Xenon gas as a signaling agent so clinicians can view how air flows through different parts of the lungs in real-time. Xenon MRI is FDA approved to evaluate lung ventilation in patients aged 12 and older, and it’s pending FDA approval for children as young as six.

There is a clear unmet need for safe, accurate, and non-invasive imaging tools to visualize lung ventilation without radiation exposure. This is particularly urgent in pediatrics, where repeat imaging is often necessary to track disease progression or treatment response.

Non-invasive Xenon MRI is now integrated into Philips’ clinical workflow across 3T MRI systems. With two ten-second breath holds, the scan session can be done in less than a minute using the FDA-cleared Xenoview 3T chest coil. This way, clinicians can easily switch between Xenon and standard Proton imaging without moving the patient or changing coils.

“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,” said Dr. Ioannis Panagiotelis, Business Leader of MRI at Philips. “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. We’re proud to be leading the way in making this innovation a routine part of clinical care.”

“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,” added Dr. Christopher von Jako, Chief Executive Officer at Polarean. “Philips and Polarean share a common goal: to make lung imaging more precise, accessible, and patient-friendly. The introduction of the XENOVIEW 3T Chest Coil, combined with Philips’ robust MRI platforms, marks a significant step in realizing that vision.”

Earlier this week, Philips revealed a new collaboration with NVIDIA to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) advances for MR (magnetic resonance) imaging. The duo plans to build a foundational model for MRI that’s powered by NVIDIA’s advanced AI computing platform.