Open AccessMolecular medicine: Synthesis and in-vivo detection of agents for use in boron neutron capture therapy. Final report, May 1, 1993--April 30, 1996
Author(s) -
George W. Kabalka
Publication year - 1997
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/527491
Subject(s) - boron , nuclear magnetic resonance , isotopes of boron , magnetic resonance imaging , quadrupole , nuclear quadrupole resonance , signal (programming language) , neutron capture , relaxation (psychology) , materials science , isotope , chemistry , physics , computer science , nuclear physics , atomic physics , medicine , radiology , programming language
During the early stages of this project, the author developed the first whole-body boron MRI technique. They found that, for the first time, information concerning both the location and the quantity of boron present in living tissues could be obtained through the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) respectively. However, it was also discovered that boron MRI was not without problems. Both naturally occurring isotopes of boron (boron-10 and boron-11) possess magnetic moments, making them amenable to MR detection. The author found that there are difficulties in obtaining boron MRI images which are a consequence of the inherently poor magnetic resonance characteristics of the boron nucleus. The magnetogyric ratios of both boron-10 and boron-11 are smaller than those of hydrogen, which makes boron much less sensitive to magnetic resonance detection. In addition, both isotopes of boron posses nuclear electric quadrupole moments which serve to shorten their magnetization relaxation times; this causes the MR signal to broaden and decay rapidly, often before the receiver coils can collect the MR information. The rapid rate of signal decay is enhanced in biological systems which leads to further signal loss and a decrease in the signal to noise ratio (SNR)