Quantitative in vivo Imaging of Low Concentrations of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with Adiabatic Preparation Pulses

Steven Harris¹, Liya Wang², Jing Huang², Lei Zhou¹, Hui Mao², Xiaoping Hu¹

Adiabatic preparation pulses and the failure of the adiabatic condition for spins diffusing near the iron oxide nanoparticles can be used to generate contrast that is linearly increasing with particle concentration. In this work, In Vitro work is extended to an in vivo model of nanoparticle accumulation in the mouse liver. The adiabatic full passage contrast, as well as a magnetization transfer compensated approach, is shown to be linearly correlated with organ iron concentration by biochemical measurement. The low nanoparticle concentrations used in this study suggest the approach may be suitable for in vivo quantitative molecular imaging studies.