Adiabatic pulse preparation for imaging iron oxide nanoparticles

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles produce changes in the surrounding microscopic magnetic field. A method for generating contrast based on the application of an adiabatic preparation pulse and the failure of the adiabatic condition surrounding the nanoparticles is introduced in this article. Images were obtained in the presence and absence of an adiabatic preparation pulse and the difference was obtained. With the use of an adiabatic full passage pulse, the contrast in the difference image depends linearly on iron concentration up to 1 mM. The use of an adiabatic zero passage pulse resulted in higher sensitivity to nanoparticles compared to the adiabatic full passage, while maintaining linear concentration dependence to 0.1 mM. This technique was shown to be insensitive to magnetization transfer and B(0) inhomogeneity. With its linearity with iron concentration and insensitivity to changes in the main magnetic field, the new method is well suited for quantitative iron oxide nanoparticle imaging.