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MRI Contrast Agents

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PET/MRI in Oncology

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Abstract

The goal of most MRI contrast agents is to shorten the T1 of water in an imaged voxel. By shortening the T1, the signal intensity of the voxel increases on T1-weighted images, thereby making the signal brighter. This is applied for both vascular enhancement as well as increasing the conspicuity of tumors. Unlike CT contrast agents, the contrast agents are not imaged directly in MRI but rather the contrast agents affect the adjacent water molecules in a way that shorten their T1. The use of MRI contrast agents in oncological PET/MRI applications is discussed in this chapter. We will review the available gadolinium contrast agents used clinically, as well as additional agents that can be used to provide contrast in MRI.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Thomas A. Hope

  2. Department of Radiology, San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Thomas A. Hope

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  1. Thomas A. Hope
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Correspondence to Thomas A. Hope .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Andrei Iagaru

  2. Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Thomas Hope

  3. Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Patrick Veit-Haibach

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Hope, T.A. (2018). MRI Contrast Agents. In: Iagaru, A., Hope, T., Veit-Haibach, P. (eds) PET/MRI in Oncology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68517-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68517-5_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68516-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-68517-5

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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