Characterization of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes as Anysotropic Contrast Agents for MRI

Pilar Lopez-Larrubia¹, Viviana Negri², Laura Nieto-Charques¹, Sebastian Cerdan¹, Paloma Ballesteros²

The increased use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging methods as clinical diagnostic tools has prompted for the development of new, more powerful and selective MRI contrast agents (CAs). Our research group has prepared and characterized new paramagnetic CAs and pH probes aimed to measure the extracellular pH within tumours through ¹H MRSI. In this work our aim is to develop a new generation of paramagnetic CAs with anisotropic magnetic properties, being the Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes the ideal systems. We propose the use of these materials to distinguish between laminar or turbulent flow in the normal or pathologic biological systems.