Quantitative magnetic resonance fluorine imaging: today and tomorrow

Fluorine (F-19) is a promising moiety for quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It possesses comparable magnetic resonance (MR) sensitivity to proton (H-1) but exhibits no tissue background signal, allowing specific and selective assessment of the administrated F-19-containing compounds in vivo. Additionally, the MR spectra of F-19-containing compounds exhibited a wide range of chemical shifts (>200 ppm). Therefore, both MR parameters (e.g., spin-lattice relaxation rate R-1) and the absolute quantity of molecule can be determined with F-19 MRI for unbiased assessment of tissue physiology and pathology. This article reviews quantitative F-19 MRI applications for mapping tumor oxygenation, assessing molecular expression in vascular diseases, and tracking labeled stem cells. (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. WIREs Nanomed Nanobiotechnol 2010 2 431-440