Fluorine-19 inversion-recovery, echo-planar imaging (IR-EPI) was used in conjunction with a new PFC emulsion, perfluoro-15-crown-5-ether, to map the spatial distribution of oxygen tension in murine liver, spleen and radiation induced fibrosarcoma (RIF-1) tumors. Intravenously administered PFC emulsions were allowed to sequester in the liver, spleen, and tumor 3 to 7 days prior to imaging experiments. Seven, 64 x 64 IR-EPIs were acquired with successively increasing inversion times (TI). A nonlinear least-squares regression algorithm was used to fit the seven two-dimensional matrices, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, to solve for the relaxation rate, R1, of the sequestered PFC. From in vitro calibration curves, the oxygen tension (pO2) was calculated from the measured R1. Oxygen tension maps were then murine liver and spleen were produced (in 2.5 min) to demonstrate the technique and changes in tissue oxygenation as a function of breathing gas (air and carbogen (95% O2-5% CO2)) are presented. Tissue pO2 maps from RIF-1 tumors (n = 5) were obtained in less than 10 min and changes in tumor pO2 were studied when the breathing gas was switched from air to carbogen. The results from tumor pO2 maps were compared with 19F MR spectroscopy measurements to check for consistency. Histogram analysis yielded an average liver and spleen pO2 of 43 torr and 26 torr for RIF-1 tumors when the animals were breathing air. Statistically significant changes in tumor oxygenation as a function of breathing gas were obtained from both pO2 maps (6 +/- 2 torr, P < 0.05) and 19F MR spectroscopy (13 +/- 3 torr, P < 0.01) as evaluated using the Student's paired t test.