First experimental evidence of the feasibility of multi-color magnetic particle imaging

Magnetic particle imaging is a new approach to visualizing magnetic nanoparticles. It is capable of 3D real-time in vivo imaging of particles injected into the blood stream and is a candidate for medical imaging applications. To date, only one particle type has been imaged at a time, however, the ability to separate signals acquired simultaneously from different particle types or from particles in different environments would substantially increase the scope of the method. Different colors could be assigned to different signal sources to allow for visualization in a single image. Successful signal separation has been reported in spectroscopic experiments, but it was unclear how well separation would work in conjunction with spatial encoding in an imaging experiment. This work presents experimental evidence of the separability of signals from different particle types and aggregation states (fluid versus powder) using a 'multi-color' reconstruction approach. Several mechanisms are discussed that may form the basis for successful signal separation.