title: Nitric oxide increases the signal intensity of the T1-weighted magnetic resonance image of blood.
abstract: Human blood was infused through a gas permeable membrane to determine if treatment with nitric oxide affects the signal intensity of its T1-weighted magnetic resonance image. Equal volumes of blood with increasing concentrations of methemoglobin were placed in glass tubes. T1-weighted images of the samples were obtained with a 1.5T magnetic resonance scanner. There was a linear correlation between the signal intensity of the T1-weighted images and the amount of methemoglobin in each sample (r2 = 0.94, p = 0.0015). Thus, blood that has been treated with nitric oxide can potentially be used as an autologous intravascular contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. pcrday@ihc.com
authors.forename: Ronald W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Day
authors.forename: Keith S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Gary L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Hedlund
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008706:Methemoglobin / Q000378:metabolism; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D012016:Reference Values; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D008706:Methemoglobin