In: Biology
In the early days of MRI, the infusion of the patient with a lanthanide complex was used to generate MR image contrast (dark areas vs. light areas). Generally, a dark area is one where water relaxation is fast (dark due to no signal), and a light area is one where it is slow (areas of maximum signal). Discuss how this happens
The most interesting feature of lanthanides is the magnetic properties of some of their ions, which makes them useful as contrast agents in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) applications. MRI is an imaging technique widely used in the clinic for the diagnosis of disease and visualisation of injuries, which utilises magnetic fields and electromagnetic radiation to create images of the physiology within the body. Contrast agents are normally needed to enhance the signal obtained from MRI and improve the quality of the images obtained, and.
A dye (contrast agent) may be injected into the bloodstream to enhance certain tissues. The dye contained some lanthanides such as gadolinium, which has magnetic properties. It circulates through the blood stream and is absorbed in certain tissues, which then stand out on the scan.
The gadolinium ion which is a lanthanide is useful as an MRI contrast agent because it has seven unpaired electrons, which is the greatest number of unpaired electron spins possible for an atom. Gadolinium molecules shorten the spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) of voxels in which they are present.