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Abstract #0198

Mapping of 3He Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Anisotropy at Sub-Millisecond Diffusion Times in Sham-Instilled and Elastase-Instilled Rat Lungs

Xiaojun Xu1,2, Juan Parra-Robles3, Alexei Ouriadov1, Giles E. Santyr1,4

1Imaging Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; 2Department of Physics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; 3University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom; 4Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada


3He diffusion in the lungs is restricted by airway and alveoli walls and therefore is highly dependent on lung microstructure. 3He ADC has been shown to be sensitive to changes in terminal airway anatomy, specifically alveolar damage due to emphysema in both humans and animal models. At the terminal airway, 3He diffusion has been demonstrated to be anisotropic, described by longitudinal diffusion coefficient (DL) and transverse diffusion coefficient (DT). The purpose of this work was to measure and compare DL and DT maps in sham-instilled and elastase-instilled Wistar rats at two sub-millisecond (360 μs and 800 μs ).