RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES To characterize and compare commercially available contrast media (CM) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in terms of their relaxivity at magnetic field strengths ranging from 0.47 T to 4.7 T at physiological temperatures in water and in plasma. Relaxivities also were quantified in whole blood at 1.5 T. METHODS Relaxivities of MRI-CM were determined by nuclear magne...

The aims of this study were to determine whether standard extracellular contrast agents of Gd(III) ions in combination with a polymeric entity susceptible to hydrolytic degradation over a finite period of time, such as Hyaluronic Acid (HA), have sufficient vascular residence time to obtain comparable vascular imaging to current conventional compounds and to obtain sufficient data to show proof ...

Complexes of gadolinium(III) with N-octanoyl-N-methylglucamine (L8) and N-decanoyl-N-methylglucamine (L10) with 1 : 2 stoichiometry were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and molar conductivity measurements. The transverse (r 2) and longitudinal (r 1) relaxivity protons were measured at 20 ...

The ion exchange intercalation of two Gd-based magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents into hydroxy double salts (HDSs) is reported. The presence of Gd(3+) diethylenetriaminepentaacetate and Gd(3+) diethylenetriaminepenta(methylenephosphonate) complexes in the HDS lattice after intercalation was confirmed by microwave plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. The structural aspects of the HDS-Gd ...

A bis-polyazamacrocycle, 10'-bis(acetamido)ethane-bis[1,4,7-tri(carboxymethane)-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane] (DO3A-AME-DO3A) was synthesized for application in magnetic resonance imaging. The efficacy of DO3A-AME-DO3A as non ionic magnetic contrast agent was tested by performing relaxometric studies on its gadolinium complex. The longitudinal relaxivity, r(1) and transverse relaxivity, r(2) ...

We report a methodology which enables the preparation of dendrimeric contrast agents sensitive to Ca(2+) when starting from the monomeric analogue. The Ca-triggered longitudinal relaxivity response of these agents is not compromised by undertaking synthetic transformations, despite structural changes. The in vivo MRI studies in the rat cerebral cortex indicate that diffusion properties of dendr...

In aqueous solution, Gd(3+) and thiacalix[4]arene-p-tetrasulfonate (TCAS) form the complex [Gd3TCAS2](7-), in which a trinuclear Gd(3+) core is sandwiched by two TCAS ligands. Acid-catalyzed dissociation reactions, as well as transmetalation and ligand exchange with physiological concentrations of Zn(2+) and phosphate, showed [Gd3TCAS2](7-) to be extremely inert compared to other Gd complexes. ...

Surface PEGylation of nanoparticles designed for biomedical applications is a common and straightforward way to stabilize the materials for in vivo administration and to increase their circulation time. This strategy becomes less trivial when MRI active porous nanomaterials are concerned as their function relies on water/proton-exchange between the pores and bulk water. Here we present a compre...

Contrast agents are of great importance in clinical applications of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to improve the contrast of internal body structures and to obtain tissue-specific image. However, current approved contrast agents still have limitations including low relaxivity, low specificity and uncontrolled blood circulation time, which motivated researchers to develop novel contrast agent...

We demonstrate a novel noncovalent method for producing Gd(III)-functionalized gold nanorods as multimodal contrast agents for MRI and CT imaging. The ligand is connected to the surface of the gold nanorods by a noncovalent bond making the Gd(III) ions directly accessible to water molecules, and resulting in a longitudinal relaxivity as high as 21.3 mM(-1) s(-1). In addition, compared with sphe...