title: Contrast agents and mechanisms.
abstract: MRI contrast agents are routinely used in clinical settings. Important advances in their design have been attained in the past few years to overcome sensitivity issues and to make possible molecular imaging applications by means of this modality. Besides the sensitivity enhancement of paramagnetic relaxation probes, outstanding results have been obtained in the development of novel classes of frequency-encoding agents such as chemical exchange saturation transfer and hyperpolarized (13)C-enriched molecules.:
authors.affiliation: Università degli Studi di Torino, Dipartimento di Chimica Inorganica, Fisica e dei Materiali, Centro di Imaging Molecolare, via Nizza, 52-10126 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dastrù
authors.affiliation: Università degli Studi di Torino, Dipartimento di Chimica Inorganica, Fisica e dei Materiali, Centro di Imaging Molecolare, via Nizza, 52-10126 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Longo
authors.affiliation: Università degli Studi di Torino, Dipartimento di Chimica Inorganica, Fisica e dei Materiali, Centro di Imaging Molecolare, via Nizza, 52-10126 Torino, Italy. Electronic address:silvio.aime@unito.it.
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aime