(MRA) Magnetic resonance angiography is a medical imaging technique to visualize blood filled structures, including arteries, veins and the heart chambers. This MRI technique creates soft tissue contrast between blood vessels and surrounding tissues primarily created by flow, rather than displaying the vessel lumen. There are bright blood and black blood MRA techniques, named according to the appearance of the blood vessels. With this different MRA techniques both, the blood flow and the condition of the blood vessel walls can be seen. Flow effects in MRI can produce a range of artifacts. MRA takes advantage of these artifacts to create predictable image contrast due to the nature of flow.
Technical parameters of the MRA sequence greatly affect the sensitivity of the images to flow with different velocities or directions, turbulent flow and vessel size.
This are the three main types of MRA:
All angiographic techniques differentially enhance vascular MR signal. The names of the bright blood techniques TOF and PCA reflect the physical properties of flowing blood that were exploited to make the vessels appear bright. Contrast enhanced magnetic resonance angiography creates the angiographic effect by using an intravenously administered MR contrast agent to selectively shorten the T1 of blood and thereby cause the vessels to appear bright on T1 weighted images.
MRA images optimally display areas of constant blood flow-velocity, but there are many situations where the flow within a voxel has non-uniform speed or direction. In a diseased vessel these patterns are even more complex. Similar loss of streamline flow occurs at all vessel junctions and stenoses, and in regions of mural thrombosis. It results in a loss of signal, due to the loss of phase coherence between spins in the voxel.
This signal loss, usually only noticeable distal to a stenosis, used to be an obvious characteristic of MRA images. It is minimized by using small voxels and the shortest possible TE. Signal loss from disorganized flow is most noticeable in TOF imaging but also affects the PCA images.
Indications to perform a magnetic resonance angiography (MRA):
Conventional angiography or computerized tomography angiography (CT angiography) may be needed after MRA if a problem (such as an aneurysm) is present or if surgery is being considered.

See also Magnetic Resonance Imaging MRI.

(MRCP) This MR imaging technique takes advantage of the high signal intensity of body fluids and acquires heavy T2 weighted images of the gall bladder, the pancreas and parts of the liver. Due to the T2 weighting, the liver and other solid parenchyma are signal suppressed and only fluid-filled structures in addition to the gall bladder, the bile and pancreatic ducts retain important signal intensity. Hepatobiliary contrast agents (e.g. Gadoxetic Acid, CMC 001) can be useful for enhancement of the bile ducts and better imaging of the biliary tract.
A 2D cholangiogram, often only one thick slice (a volume with a thickness of 4 - 8 cm, mostly coronal planned) or 5 - 6 radial placed slices, shows a view like single slices. If a 3D acquisition is used, the postprocessing function maximum intensity projection (MIP) can show reconstructions from multiple sides.

Porphyrins occur naturally in plants and animals. All porphyrin molecules feature an aromatic macrocycle ring with a central binding site. This site accommodates transition metals, which are held in place by inward-facing nitrogen atoms. Metalloporphyrins have usually a low toxicity and a potential of a selective uptake in tumors or necrosis. These properties are advantageous for a use as MRI tumor specific agents with positive enhancement. These contrast agents enhance tumors on T1 weighted sequences, which are isointense to surrounding tissues. Porphyrin-based compounds have also necrosis avid properties; they can depict the extent of myocardial infarction as defined by histopathology.
Metalloporphyrins are also used in photodynamic therapy of tumors. The compounds contain a 'lone star' metal atom at the center of the ring and are 'bigger than the average porphyrin'. They contain five N atoms in the central chelating core and this allows them to form complexes with large trivalent lanthanide metals, which have useful cancer therapy properties.

See also Classifications, Characteristics, etc., Gadophrin, MnIIITPPS4, Necrosis Avid Contrast Agent.

(MPR) The postprocessing reformatting of a 3D data set into 2D slices of arbitrary thickness at any angle. For a good resolution thin slices, isotropic voxel and overcontiguous slices (overlapping slices) for good signal are advantageous.

Short name: NC100150, PEG-feron, generic name: Feruglose, preliminary trade name: Clariscan™
NC100150 injection is the code name for an USPIO (ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide) MRI contrast agent under development. Microvessel permeability depends on functional and morphologic characteristics of cancer vessels and on physicochemical properties of the injected contrast medium molecule.
USPIO particles have a favorable pharmacological and tolerance profile and are being tested clinically of the potential for the quantitative characterization of tumor microvasculature and specifically for measures of the microvessel permeability. Iron-based products take advantage of their large molecular size, which prevents diffusion into body tissues. These agents are disposed of by the liver and spleen as particulate matter.
NC100150 Injection (Nycomed Amersham, Amersham Health ) consists of USPIO particles that are composed of single crystals (4- to 7-nm diameter) and stabilized with a carbohydrate polyethylene glycol (PEG) coat. The iron oxide particles have to be suspended in an isotonic glucose solution. The final diameter of an USPIO particle is approximately 20 nm. Blood pool half-life is more than two hours in humans; the particles are taken up by the mononuclear phagocyte system and distributed mainly to the liver and spleen.
NC100150 would compete with the contrast agents Ferumoxytol from AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Vasovist™ from EPIX Pharmaceuticals, Inc., but at this time the development of NC100150 Injection/Clariscan™ is discontinued.