Development of a novel magnetic resonance imaging contrast agent for pressure measurementsusing lipid coated gas filled microbubbles

摘要

The aim of this study was to prepare a magneticresonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent for imaging offluid pressure. This involved preparing gas microbubblesusing two contrasting methods: homogenisation andsonication. In the first method, the microbubbles arecomposed of a standard phospholipid (DSPC) and filledwith air or nitrogen (N2) whilst in the second method themicrobubbles are composed of a fluorinated phospholipid(F-GPC) filled with a fluorocarbon saturated gas. Thesemicrobubbles were evaluated in terms of physicochemicalcharacteristics such as size and stability beforetheir efficacy as pressure sensitive probes wasinvestigated.Our studies showed that whilst maintaining highsensitivity, a novel contrast agent which allows stableMRI measurements of fluid pressure over time, could beproduced using lipid-coated microbubbles.