Longitudinal in vivo 19F MR imaging by ZTE of 19F labeled calcium phosphate cement implanted in bone defects in the rat

To enhance MR image contrast of calcium phosphate cement (CPC) to bone, CPC was tagged with ¹⁹F loaded nanoparticles. This ¹⁹F labeled CPC material, after implantation into bone defects in rat legs, was monitored in vivo at 11.7T by longitudinal ¹⁹F zero echo time (ZTE) MR imaging. We demonstrate that the overlay of ¹⁹F ZTE images on ¹H images allows for an excellent qualitative view of CPC with no background. By a quantitative evaluation of the ¹⁹F signal the in vivo degradation of CPC over weeks can be followed by MRI.