Ute Bommerich1, Samir Mulla-Osman2, Joachim Bargon3, Johannes Bernarding2
1Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Magdeburg, Germany; 2IBMI, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany; 3Institute for Physical Chemistry, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
19F-MRI and -MRS are emerging methods with promising applications in medicine as highly interesting diagnostic tools. 19F nuclei do not appear in soft tissue, accordingly appropriate reporter molecules must be administered to perform correspondent investigations. As for all MR investigations this techniques suffer from an inherent low sensitivity so that an increase of signal to noise ratio for the related 19F-signals could boost the quality and quantity of possible applications. Hyperpolarization methods such as PHIP (ParaHydrogen Induced Polarization) are successfully applied for sensitivity enhancement and first 19F hyperpolarized substrates have been generated. In this contribution we present first 19F MR images which demonstrate the basic feasibility for an application of this method for MRI investigations.
Keywords