Oleic Acid (OA), A Potential Dual Contrast Agent for Postmortem MR Angiography (PMMRA): A Pilot Study.

Choosing proper perfusates as contrast agents is an important aspect for postmortem magnetic resonance angiography (PMMRA). However, in this emerging field, the number of suitable kinds of liquid is still very limited. The objective of this research is to compare MR images of oleic acid (OA) with paraffin oil (PO) in vitro and in ex situ animal hearts, in order to evaluate the feasibility to use OA as a novel contrast agent for PMMRA. In vitro, OA, PO and water (control) were introduced into three tubes separately and Tweighted-spin echo (Tw-SE) and Tw-SE images were acquired on a 1.5T MR scanner. In the second experiment, OA and PO were injected into left coronary artery (LCA) and left ventricle (LV) of ex situ bovine hearts and their Tw-SE, Tw-SE, Tw-multipoint Dixon (Tw-mDixon) and 3DTw-mDixon images were acquired. The overall results indicate that OA may have a potential to be used as a dual (T and T based) contrast agent for PMMRA when proper sequence parameters are utilized. However, as the pilot study was based on limited number of animal hearts, more researches using OA in cadavers are needed to validate our findings.