Amersham Health As

Lars Johansson

Atle Bjørnerud

Kenneth Edmund Kellar

Per Akeson

Karen Briley-Saebo

A method of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of blood perfusion in vascularized organs of interest, e.g. the myocardium, the kidneys, the brain, the liver wherein a contrast agent composition comprising a particulate superparamagnetic metal oxide is administered.

Method of magnetic resonance imaging

The invention provides a method of magnetic resonance imaging of regional blood oxygenation which comprises administering into the vasculature of a vascularized human or non-human animal subject a Tblood pool contrast agent, detecting a magnetic resonance signal from at least part of the vasculature of said subject into which said contrast agent distributes, and manipulating said signal to generate an indication of the partial pressure of oxygen (pO) in at least part of said vasculature.

This invention relates to a method of contrast agent-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of perfusion in vasculated tissue within a human or non-human animal body in which a bolus comprising a contrast-enhancing amount of a magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent is administered into the vascular system of said body, and said body is subjected to a magnetic resonance imaging procedure whereby signals or images representative of first pass of said contrast agent bolus through tissue of interest are generated, characterised in that (i) said contrast agent is capable of exhibiting simultaneous, determinable T and T * reducing effects under the imaging procedure employed and (ii) a T -weighted imaging procedure is used (a) to visualise the first pass of said contrast agent bolus through said tissue by virtue of its signal lowering T * effect and (b) to obtain a T -weighted contrast agent-enhanced image of said tissue.

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Uppsala, Sweden

Lars Johansson