Pulmonary functional imaging with 133 xenon: quantification of dissolved xenon during closed circuit breathing. Application to pulmonary predominant mucoviscidosis

133 Xenon pulmonary investigation allows an estimation of the permeability of air spaces, blood vessels and of the repartition of flows and capacitances. Xenon solubility in biological materiel induces background noise. We compute the percentage of dissolved Xenon in the whole body after five minutes of closed circuit breathing; background noise is, therefore, eliminated and the air space repartition is obtained; in case of pulmonary hypersecretion, as mucoviscidosis, a matrix of the repartition of mucus in the lung is obtained