HEPATOBILIARY NMR CONTRAST AGENTS

摘要

A method of decreasing the NMR relaxation times (T1 or T2) of water protons in contact with a biological tissue, the method involving administering to a human patient an NMR contrast agent comprising a paramagnetic ion complexed with a chelating substance, the contrast agent being characterized in that it is capable of binding non-covalently and non-immunologically to a component of the tissue, and as a result of such binding is capable of enhancing relaxivity of the water protons by a factor of at least 2, compared to the relaxivity induced by the paramagnetic substance alone free in solution, and subjecting the patient to NMR imaging.