[Quantification and visualization of oxygen partial pressure in vivo by 19F NMR imaging of perfluorocarbons].

Due to the high solubility of molecular oxygen in perfluorocabons (PFC), this class of fluorinated compounds has gained wide-spread interest for its biomedical application as temporary blood substitutes and as radiosensitizers. Since the observation that the NMR spin-lattice relaxation times (T1) of some 19F PFC resonances are sensitive to oxygen tension (pO2), this paramagnetic effect has been used to non-invasively probe pO2 in vivo. In this study, combined 19F/1H NMR image data of Copenhagen rats after PFC application were evaluated with the software package MATLAB. The analysis of the 19F NMR data resulted in image matrices with calculated T1 values in each pixel. By using a calibration curve, the corresponding pO2 values were computed. Color overlays of pO2 contour lines on T1-weighted 1H images show a good anatomical-functional correspondence.