Detection of myocardial capillary orientation with intravascular iron-oxide nanoparticles in spin-echo MRI.
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 R2 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.
Vignaud
Alexandre
A
Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics, Division of Intramural Research, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1061, USA.
Rodriguez
Ignacio
I
Ennis
Daniel B
DB
DeSilva
Ranil
R
Kellman
Peter
P
Taylor
Joni
J
Bennett
Eric
E
Wen
Han
H
D000818:Animals; D002196:Capillaries / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003287:Contrast Media; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003911:Dextrans; D004285:Dogs; D052203:Ferrosoferric Oxide; D007501:Iron; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D058185:Magnetite Nanoparticles; D049329:Nanostructures; D010087:Oxides; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D003287:Contrast Media; D003911:Dextrans; D058185:Magnetite Nanoparticles; D010087:Oxides; C097921:ferumoxtran-10; D007501:Iron; D052203:Ferrosoferric Oxide