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Abstract #2548

Anisotropic Nature of 3He Gas Diffusion in Mice Lungs

Emir Osmanagic1, Alexander L. Sukstanskii2, Mark S. Conradi3, James D. Quirk2, Dmitriy A. Yablonskiy2

1Electrical and Systems Engineering, Washington University, St. Louis, Misssouri, United States; 2Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis, Misssouri, United States; 3Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, United States


Diffusion-attenuated MR signal of 3He gas in lungs demonstrate non-mono-exponential dependence on b-value. It was previously suggested that such behavior is a result of microscopically anisotropic but macroscopically isotropic nature of lung microstructure: diffusion in each airway is anisotropic, while distribution of airway axes directions is isotropic. Hypothetically such non-mono-exponential dependence would also be present in a system of multiple spherical compartments (mimicking alveoli) with a variety of sizes. Herein, we used experiments with three consecutive bipolar gradient pulses with orthogonal and parallel gradient orientations to discriminate between such two systems. Our result confirmed microscopically anisotropic hypothesis.

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