Gas-filled microbubbles as intravascular susceptibility contrast agent for brain MRI

Perfusion & Permeability: DSC-MRI - Poster presentationGas-filled microbubbles have the potential to become a unique MR contrast agent due to their magnetic susceptibility effect, biocompatibility and localized manipulation via ultrasound cavitation. In this study, custom-made albumin-coated microbubbles and a commercially available lipid-based clinical ultrasound contrast agent SonoVue® were investigated with in vivo dynamic brain MRI in Sprague-Dawley rats at 7 Tesla. The results indicate that microbubbles can serve as an intravascular contrast agent for brain MRI at high field. Such microbubble MRI has the potential to provide real-time MRI guidance in various microbubble-based drug delivery and therapeutic applications.published_or_final_versionThe 17th Scientific Meeting & Exhibition of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM), Honolulu, HI., 18-24 April 2009. In Proceedings of ISMRM 17th Scientific Meeting & Exhibition, 2009, p. 147