Divalent Europium in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

摘要

Eu~(II) is isoelectronic with Gd~(III), resulting in both ions having desirable properties with respect to enhancing contrast in magnetic resonance imaging. Recently, the use of Eu~(II) as an in vivo contrast agent was reported.1 In this context, the contrast enhancement ceased upon oxidation, enabling the hypoxic core of a tumor to be imaged. However, the oxidized europium species did not produce enhancement in T_1 weighted images, leading to a desire to couple a detection method for Eu~(III) with Eu~(II)-based contrast agents.