Emir Osmanagic1,2, Alexander L. Sukstanskii3,
James D. Quirk3, Jason C. Woods3,4, Mark S. Conradi4,
Dmitriy A. Yablonskiy3,5
1Electrical and Systems Engineering,
Washington University, St. Louis, Misssouri, United States; 2Radiology,
Washington University, St. Louis, MO, United States; 3Radiology,
Washington University, St. Louis, Misssouri, United States; 4Physics,
Washington University, St. Louis, MO, United States; 5Physics,
Washington University, St. Louis, Misssouri, United States
Lung
morphometry technique with hyperpolarized 3He allows quantification of lung
geometrical parameters such as mean chord length Lm, surface-to-volume ratio
S/V and density of alveoli. It was demonstrated that in humans, it provides
results similar to direct morphological measurements. Two important
modifications, however, are required to adopt this technique for studying
lung microstructure in small animals reduction in diffusion time and
modification of theoretical relationship between diffusion MR signal and lung
microstructural parameters. Herein we provided such modifications and
demonstrated that measurements obtained with lung morphometry with
hyperpolarized 3He MRI in mice are in agreement with literature data.