Peter Komlosi1,
Talissa A. Altes1, Kun Qing1, G. Wilson Miller1,
Jaime F. Mata1, Gordon D. Cates Jr. 2, Eduard E. De
Lange1, John P. Mugler, III1
1Department
Radiology and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA,
United States; 2Department of Physics, University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, VA, United States
Histologic studies of the lung have demonstrated that alveolar ducts emanating from terminal bronchioles near the pleural surface show a preferential orientation perpendicular to the pleural surface, in contrast to deeper regions. The goal of the present study was to evaluate whether the dependence of He3 ADC values on the direction of the diffusion-sensitization gradient is sufficiently sensitive to detect subtle microstructural variations such as those near pleural surfaces. Diffusion-weighted measurements along three orthogonal diffusion-sensitization directions demonstrated increased ADC values when the sensitization direction was perpendicular to the plural surface.
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