Iopamidol: Exploring the potential use of a well-established x-ray contrast agent for MRI
✍ Scribed by Silvio Aime; Luisella Calabi; Luca Biondi; Mario De Miranda; Stefano Ghelli; Lino Paleari; Cristina Rebaudengo; Enzo Terreno
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2005
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 478 KB
- Volume
- 53
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0740-3194
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Iopamidol is one of the most common contrast media used for diagnostic CT‐based clinical protocols. Chemically, this molecule contains two pools of mobile protons (amide and alcoholic) that are in exchange with water. At 7.05 T, pH 7.4, and 312 K, the exchange rate of the alcoholic protons is too fast to affect the NMR properties of water protons, whereas the slowly exchanging amide protons induce a T~2~‐shortening effect on the “bulk” water signal that is detectable when the concentration is about 12 mM. Moreover, a more pronounced contrast is observed when the amide resonances are saturated by the application of an appropriate RF irradiation field, making iopamidol a potential chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) agent whose effect can be detected at a concentration as low as 7 mM (at 7.05 T). The exploitation of the MRI properties of iopamidol could facilitate novel and interesting diagnostic applications for combined MRI and CT studies. Magn Reson Med 53:830–834, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.