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Abstract #3981

What can multiple b-value 3 He MRI tell us about lung micro-structure in healthy elderly never-smokers?

Gregory Paulin 1,2 , Alexei Ouriadov 1,2 , Khadija Sheikh 1,2 , David G McCormack 3 , and Grace Parraga 1,2

1 Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada, 2 Department of Medical Biophysics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, 3 Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Diffusion-weighted noble gas pulmonary MRI provides in vivo images with contrast uniquely sensitive to molecular displacement at cellular and sub-cellular length scales. We estimated the external airway radius and internal airway radius of alveoli to evaluate potential differences in acinar duct morphometries in healthy older never-smokers using a multi-slice 2D gradient echo diffusion-weighted sequence. Preliminary results show that MRI measurements of lung morphometry in older never-smokers were elevated compared to previous results reported in younger never-smokers. These findings are compatible with senile emphysematous changes to healthy lung parenchyma that accompanies aging.

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