Experimental Investigation of the Non-Gaussian Diffusion of 129 Xe in Human Lungs

Juan Parra-Robles¹, Xiaojun Xu¹, Martin H. Deppe¹, Steven R. Parnell¹, Helen Marshall¹, Jim M. Wild¹

Short-range diffusion of 3He in the lungs is non-Gaussian and the b-dependence of the ADC has been used to extract morphometric information about the geometry of acinar airways. Due to the lower diffusivity of 129Xe, it may be more sensitive than 3He to airway changes caused by emphysema. However, the measurement of ADC at multiple b values is challenging for 129Xe due to the lower SNR and the longer diffusion times required to obtain large b values. In this work we present preliminary results of the measurement of the b-dependent ADC of 129Xe in healthy human volunteers.