Use of an intravascular T1 contrast agent to improve MR cine myocardial-blood pool definition in men

The feasibility of improving myocardial/blood pool contrast in NIR cine images through use of an intravascular contrast agent (Ferumoxtran, Advanced Magnetics, Inc., Cambridge, MA) was tested in four subjects, The contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) demonstrated a trend toward improvement in the short axis and improved significantly in the long axis cine by an average of 128% (P < .05), Image intensity gradients at the myocardial/blood pool interface increased significantly in both the short and long axis (P < .01), It is expected that larger image intensity gradients at the endocardial border should improve the capabilities of automated segmentation algorithms, reducing the uncertainty and need for manual editing.