Abstract #1806

Protti A, Bell J, Herlihy A, So P

Superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (SPIOs) have been extensively used in molecular imaging by MRI for the imaging of cells and gene expression. However, being iron based, imaging of such particles causes attenuation of the signal intensity due to severe shortening of T2*. In order to detect the short T2* SPIOs a novel UTE technique, Diagonal-SPRITE was used. Diagonal-SPRITE determined the T2* of phantoms containing either a SPIO-containing solution or saline. In-vivo Diagonal-SPRITE MRI was also performed and positive contrast of SPIOs was achieved by the subtraction of an image at ultra-short and short Tp.