Medlar (Achras Sapota L.) as Oral Contrast Agent for MRI of the Gastrointestinal Tract

摘要

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is still limited due to the lack of widely available oral contrast agents (OCA). The availability of OCA for MRI of the GI tract is a necessity; different fruits might be implemented as OCA in order to solve this need throughout the year. The objective of this study is to present an alternative fruit as a clinical OCA for MRI of the GI tract, Achras sapota L. (common medlar). Both physical and chemical characterization of the medlar was performed. It was also tested in situ and in vivo as an OCA for MRI of the GI tract. Results showed that this fruit had a diamagnetic behavior, although it has enough iron, manganese and copper to contrast the GI tract in T _1- and T _2-weighted images. Thus we conclude that the medlar fruit has shown a potential as an OCA in GI evaluation by MRI, so it can be considered as an alternative in complementation of natural OCA.