High Longitudinal and Transverse Relaxivities with Rare Earth ions doped Mn0.6Zn0.4Fe2O4: a Potential for dual-mode Contrast Agents

MRI contrast agents have gained extensive attention for providing contrast between normal and abnormal tissue. However, single-mode contrast agents do not always provide the required contrast enhancement for disease detection. One effective strategy for avoiding ambiguous images is to design MRI contrast agents with simultaneous T1 and T2 shortening effects. The purpose of this work is to synthesize rare earth ions doped Mn-Zn ferrite (ReMZF) nanoparticles and characterize them with a 1.5T MRI scanner in vitro. The ReMZF exhibited high r1 and r2 relaxivities but moderate r2/r1 which make them suitable to be used as dual-mode contrast agents.