Short name: Mn-DPDP
This MRI contrast agent is a chelate complex of the paramagnetic metal ion manganese (Mn) and fodipir. Mn-DPDP (Teslascan) shortens the longitudinal relaxation time and is used for the T1 weighted enhancement of MR images. Mangafodipir trisodium accumulates after intravenous injection in the healthy tissue of the liver and improves the detection, localization, characterization, and evaluation of lesions of the liver, pancreas, but can also be used in cardiac MRI.
See also Hepatobiliary Chelates and Teslascan®.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted marketing clearance 1997, to Nycomed Amersham's MRI contrast medium. Nycomed/Amersham, now GE Healthcare markets the product under the trade name Teslascan®.

Radiographic low-osmolar nonionic contrast agents have less side effects and fewer nephrotoxicity than ionic, high-osmolar agents. Gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents have a different formulation from iodinated X-ray contrast media, and there is no known cross sensitivity between these two types of contrast agents. Intravenous MRI contrast agents, specifically the gadolinium chelates have a high safety and lack of nephrotoxicity compared with X-ray contrast media.
The used gadolinium chelates differ in following properties: linear (e.g., gadodiamide and gadoversetamide have nonionic linear structures) vs. macrocyclic cores, and ionic vs. nonionic types. The nonionic molecules have lower osmolality and viscosity, which increase digestibility at greater concentrations, and make faster bolus injections conceivable. The macrocyclic molecules (e.g., gadoteridol has a nonionic macrocyclic ring structure) are more stable and show fewer tendencies to dissociate free Gd.

See also ProHance®, Omniscan®, OptiMARK®, Ionic Intravenous Contrast Agents.

See also the related poll result: 'MRI will have replaced 50% of x-ray exams by'

Short name: B-19036, central moiety: Gd+
B19036/7 compared with E-7155, Gd-BOPTA, Gd-BOPTA/Dimeg are synonyms for the contrast agent MultiHance®, marketed by Bracco Diagnostics Inc, Milan, Italy. B-19036 is a gadolinium chelate. See also the contrast agent info sheet about classifications, characteristics, etc.

Short name: CEIV-7, central moiety: Gd
A paramagnetic chelate with capabilities as a multipurpose T1-relaxivity necrosis avid MRI contrast agent.

See also Necrosis Avid Contrast Agent.

(CE MRA) Contrast enhanced MR angiography is based on the T1 values of blood, the surrounding tissue, and paramagnetic contrast agent.
T1-shortening contrast agents reduces the T1 value of the blood (approximately to 50 msec, shorter than that of the surrounding tissues) and allow the visualization of blood vessels, as the images are no longer dependent primarily on the inflow effect of the blood. Contrast enhanced MRA is performed with a short TR to have low signal (due to the longer T1) from the stationary tissue, short scan time to facilitate breath hold imaging, short TE to minimize T2* effects and a bolus injection of a sufficient dose of a gadolinium chelate.
Images of the region of interest are performed with 3D spoiled gradient echo pulse sequences. The enhancement is maximized by timing the contrast agent injection such that the period of maximum arterial concentration corresponds to the k-space acquisition. Different techniques are used to ensure optimal contrast of the arteries e.g., bolus timing, automatic bolus detection, bolus tracking, care bolus. A high resolution with near isotropic voxels and minimal pulsatility and misregistration artifacts should be striven for. The postprocessing with the maximum intensity projection (MIP) enables different views of the 3D data set.
Unlike conventional MRA techniques based on velocity dependent inflow or phase shift techniques, contrast enhanced MRA exploits the gadolinium induced T1-shortening effects. CE MRA reduces or eliminates most of the artifacts of time of flight angiography or phase contrast angiography. Advantages are the possibility of in plane imaging of the blood vessels, which allows to examine large parts in a short time and high resolution scans in one breath hold. CE MRA has found a wide acceptance in the clinical routine, caused by the advantages: