Marc Derieppe1, Matthieu Lepetit-Coiff1,
Mariska De Smet2, Silke Hey1, Yasmina Berber1,
Chrit Moonen1
1Laboratory for Molecular
& Functional Imaging, UMR 5231 CNRS / University Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux,
France; 2Department of Biomedical NMR, Eindhoven University of
Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
The characterization of the spatial and temporal biodistribution of drugs is of special interest to optimize in vivo local drug delivery. This study proposes the near real-time monitoring by simultaneous T1 mapping and MR thermometry (Look-Locker sequence) of the release induced by HIFU of Gd-HPDO3A encapsulated in thermo-sensitive liposomes in a gel of polyacrylamide. This gel was enriched with Silica to ensure acoustic compatibility. A local decrease of T1 at the focal point was observed, whereas the dynamic T1 map showed no decrease.