3D Mapping of Whole Lung Morphometry with 129Xe Diffusion-Weighted MRI and Compressed Sensing: Comparison with 3He

3D whole lung morphometry maps were acquired with ¹²⁹Xe DW-MRI and compressed sensing. Prospective three-fold undersampled 3D ¹²⁹Xe lung morphometry (Lm_D) maps were derived using the stretched exponential model (SEM) and compared with equivalent ³He datasets. Five healthy volunteers were imaged using a range of ¹²⁹Xe diffusion times and the most agreeable ¹²⁹Xe and ³He Lm_D results were obtained with a ¹²⁹Xe diffusion time of 8.5 ms. These results indicate that the Lm_D values derived from the SEM are dependent on diffusion time and that ¹²⁹Xe could present a clinically-viable alternative to ³He for whole lung morphometry mapping.