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Detection of myocardial capillary orientation with intravascular iron‐oxide nanoparticles in spin‐echo MRI
Author(s) -
Vignaud Alexandre,
Rodriguez Ignacio,
Ennis Daniel B.,
DeSilva Ranil,
Kellman Peter,
Taylor Joni,
Bennett Eric,
Wen Han
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.20827
Subject(s) - orientation (vector space) , nuclear magnetic resonance , capillary action , contrast (vision) , in vivo , chemistry , intravascular ultrasound , magnetic resonance imaging , spin echo , materials science , biomedical engineering , physics , radiology , medicine , optics , geometry , biology , mathematics , microbiology and biotechnology , composite material
In mammalian hearts the capillaries are closely aligned with the muscle fibers. We report our observation of a main‐field direction‐dependent contrast in MR spin‐echo (SE) images of the heart in the presence of Ferumoxtran‐10, an intravascular iron‐oxide nanoparticle contrast agent (CA). We describe a novel MRI method for mapping the preferential orientation of capillaries in the myocardial wall. The eigenvector corresponding to the minimum eigen value of the R 2 relaxation rate tensor is consistent with the expected orientation of the capillary network. Preliminary results also demonstrate the feasibility of this method for in vivo application to rodent imaging. Magn Reson Med, 2006. Published © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.