Magnetic resonance imaging, one of the most important medical imaging advances in disease detection, relies on the injection of contrast material to highlight specific tissue or to differentiate between healthy and diseased tissue. The materials that are used in this medical imaging procedure are inclined to have the drawback of being either simply constructed and managed within the body but offering low contrast OR more complex in construction and offering sharper medical imaging contrast but with not as much stability when injected.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has been collaborating with researchers at Florida State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder to create new medical imaging contrast materials that are very magnetic, unvarying (and thereby easier to manage) and tiny. This combination of qualities will work together to make a harmless, very predictable, highly effective contract solution that can be used in medical imaging.

Naresh Dalal (a Florida State University researcher) and some additional researchers have created a magnetic molecule identified as �Fe8.� Fe8 includes all of the desirable attributes. This single molecule magnet has eight ion bonds, is water-soluble and non-toxic.

As of late published papers describe the molecules test results which show that Fe8 provides excellent contrast in non-clinical MRI studies dismissing an earlier confusion about the value of Fe8 in medical imaging. The earlier research had resulted in conflicting results because the concentration of Fe8 hadn't been accounted for during testing.

These advances are, to some extent, due to advances in nanotechnology. Nanotechnology involves working with particles that are one billionth of a meter thick. The procedures that are available to measure and manipulate such tiny particles of matter will support further research on Fe8. Researchers are hoping that these newer medical imaging contrast media will be able to be manipulated for even greater benefit than this original research suggests. For example, researchers are looking for ways to �turn on� and �turn off� the medical imaging contrast qualities by synthesizing contrast media that binds only to certain other molecules or binds just when exposed to specific conditions that can be observed and managed.

Though this breakthrough in contrast media for medical imaging is tremendously promising and is likely to provide a large leap forward in the quality of magnetic resonance imaging, there's still a great deal of testing and research to be accomplished before Fe8 can be made accessable for use in human population studies.

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