Ruud B. van Heeswijk1,2, Yves Pilloud2,3,
Ulrich Flgel4, Juerg Schwitter5, Matthias Stuber1,2
1Department of Radiology,
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois & University of Lausanne,
Lausanne, VD, Switzerland; 2Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM),
Lausanne, VD, Switzerland; 3Laboratory for Functional &
Metabolic Imaging (LIFMET), Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL),
Lausanne, Switzerland; 4Institute for Cardiovascular Physiology,
Heinrich Heine University, Dsseldorf, Germany; 5Center for
Cardiac Magnetic Resonance & Cardiology Service, Centre Hospitalier
Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland
Fluorine-19 (19F) as part of perfluorocarbons in the blood-pool has a different frequency relative to that of protons. In theory, this can be exploited for angiography with a high contrast between the vessel lumen and the surrounding tissue. Therefore, the hypothesis was tested whether intravenously administered perfluorocarbons enables a selective and exclusive visualization of the vasculature in vivo.