Magnetic Particle Imaging

Abstract

Magnetic particle imaging (MPI) is a young and very promising tomographic modality capable of imaging a distribution of biocompatible superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles within a patient with a sub-millimeter resolution in three dimensions (3D) and real-time without the need of harmful, ionizing radiation [GW05, WGR⁺09]. The potential held by this revolutionary new tomographic method was already demonstrated in the first, impressive invivo MPI images of a beating mouse heart presented in [WGR⁺09]. No existing modality is capable of providing 3D real-time images of the inside of the human body. To classify MPI within established medical imaging modalities, the crucial properties of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) are compared to those of MPI in Fig. 2.1.