T 1 - T 2 dual-modal magnetic resonance contrast-enhanced imaging for rat liver fibrosis stage.

The development of an effective method for staging liver fibrosis has always been a hot topic of research in the field of liver fibrosis. In this paper, PEGylated ultrafine superparamagnetic iron oxide nanocrystals (SPIO@PEG) were developed for - dual-modal contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and combined with Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB)-based image fusion for staging liver fibrosis in the rat model. Firstly, SPIO@PEG was synthesized and characterized with physical and biological properties as a - dual-mode MRI contrast agent. Secondly, in the subsequent MR imaging of liver fibrosis in rats , conventional and -weighted imaging, and and mapping of the liver pre- and post-intravenous administration of SPIO@PEG were systematically collected and analyzed. Thirdly, by creative design, we fused the and mapping images by MATLAB and quantitively measured each rat's hepatic fibrosis positive pixel ratio (PPR). SPIO@PEG was proved to have an ultrafine core size (4.01 ± 0.16 nm), satisfactory biosafety and - dual-mode contrast effects under a 3.0 T MR scanner ( / = 3.51). According to the image fusion results, the SPIO@PEG contrast-enhanced PPR shows significant differences among different stages of liver fibrosis ( < 0.05). The combination of - dual-modal SPIO@PEG and MATLAB-based image fusion technology could be a promising method for diagnosing and staging liver fibrosis in the rat model. PPR could also be used as a non-invasive biomarker to diagnose and discriminate the stages of liver fibrosis.