Manganese: A New Contrast Agent for Lung Imaging?

Oliviero Gobbo¹, Magdalena Zurek², Frederic Tewes¹, Carsten Ehrhardt¹, Yannick Crmillieux²

A new approach for T1-enhancemened rat lung MR imaging, was evaluated. This technique uses a manganese-based contrast agent combined with a very short echo-time radial MRI. Different concentrations of a contrast agent were investigated. A significant signal intensity enhancement was observed in the MnCl2-instilled lung versus control animals. The manganese can be use as an efficient contrast agent for lung MRI.