Spin-lock imaging of exogenous exchange-based contrast agents to assess tissue pH

MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING OF FOCAL LIVER LESIONS Characterization with the Spin Lock Technique and Detectability with Tissue-Specific Contrast Agents

Double agents and secret agents: the emerging fields of exogenous chemical exchange saturation transfer and T2-exchange magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents for molecular imaging

Two relatively new types of exogenous magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents may provide greater impact for molecular imaging by providing greater specificity for detecting molecular imaging biomarkers. Exogenous chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) agents rely on the selective saturation of the magnetization of a proton on an agent, followed by chemical exchange of a proton from th...

Exogenous contrast agents for thermoacoustic imaging: an investigation into the underlying sources of contrast.

PURPOSE Thermoacoustic imaging at microwave excitation frequencies is limited by the low differential contrast exhibited by high water content tissues. To overcome this, exogenous thermoacoustic contrast agents based on gadolinium compounds, iron oxide, and single wall carbon nanotubes have previously been suggested and investigated. However, these previous studies did not fully characterize th...

Strategies for optimizing water-exchange rates of lanthanide-based contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging.

This review describes recent advances in strategies for tuning the water-exchange rates of contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Water-exchange rates play a critical role in determining the efficiency of contrast agents; consequently, optimization of water-exchange rates, among other parameters, is necessary to achieve high efficiencies. This need has resulted in extensive resea...

Thermal Excitation of Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents Using Spin Resonance

Theoretical and experimental investigations into the thermal excitation of liquid paramagnetic contrast agents using the spin resonance relaxation mechanism are presented. The electronic spin-lattice relaxation time τ1e of gadolinium-based contrast agents, which is estimated at 0.1 ns, is ten orders of magnitude faster than the relaxation time of protons in water. The shorter relaxation time is...