Magnetic resonance angiography at 0.3 T using MS-325

Preliminary results on MS-325 versus ProHance enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) at low field strength in a rabbit model are reported. MS-325-enhanced images were acquired in vivo and compared with pre-contrast as well as conventional contrast-enhanced images. Visual image quality observations correlated with measurements of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). While published in vitro data show 7-fold greater relaxivity for MS-325 compared with conventional contrast agents, we observed an even greater effect here due, presumably, to better matching of the longer vascular lifetime with longer scan time in this study. In addition, overall vessel clarity improved significantly throughout all the phases of the experiment in MS-325-enhanced images when compared with conventional contrast-enhanced images.