Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) calculated from hyperpolarized gas diffusion-weighted (DW)-MRI has been shown to be elevated in lungs afflicted with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). This work assesses the sensitivity of 3He DW-MRI metrics to longitudinal changes in IPF patients by evaluating 3He ADC and mean diffusive length scale (LmD) from the stretched exponential model at baseline, 6 and 12 months. ADC was not significantly different between visits, but a statistically significant increase of 13 µm in LmD was observed after 12 months suggesting multiple b-value DW-MRI is sensitive to progressive microstructural changes in the lungs in IPF.
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