MRI traceability of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle-embedded chitosan microspheres as an embolic material in rabbit uterus

Abstract

To determine whether SPIO-em- bedded chitosan microspheres can be observed by MRI, four of the above-de- scribed tubes were placed in one line in a rack. MRI was performed with a 3.0 Tesla whole-body scanner (Philips Achieva, Philips Medical Systems, Best, The Netherlands) with a head array coil comprising the following sequenc- es: (i) T2-weighted turbo spin-echo im- aging (repetition time, 3000 ms; echo time, 100 ms; thickness, 0.8 mm; field of view (fov) 150×150; flip angle, 90°) and (ii) T2*-weighted gradient echo imaging (repetition time, 700 ms; echo