Manganese-based MRI contrast agent may be safer alternative to gadolinium-based agents

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Chemicals & Chemistry -- A team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has developed a potential alternative to gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In their report that has been published online in Radiology, the team describes experiments showing in a primate model that the manganese-based agent Mn-PyC3A produced contrast enhancement of blood vessels equivalent to that of gadolinium-based agents, which carry significant health risks for some patients.

“About 40 percent of MRI procedures use a contrast agent to produce a signal that can detect cancers, diagnose aneurysms or arterial narrowing, or identify the area of a heart damaged by a heart attack,” says Peter Caravan, PhD, of the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and co-director of the Institute for Innovation in Imaging at MGH, corresponding author of the Radiology paper. “All current FDA-approved MR contrast agents contain gadolinium, which in 2006 was associated with a …

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(2017-12-01), Manganese-based MRI contrast agent may be safer alternative to gadolinium-based agents, Chemicals & Chemistry, 803, ISSN: 1944-1525, BUTTER® ID: 014775974