Manganese-based MRI contrast agents: past, present and future.

Paramagnetic and superparamagnetic metals are used as contrast materials for magnetic resonance (MR) based techniques. Lanthanide metal gadolinium (Gd) has been the most widely explored, predominant paramagnetic contrast agent until the discovery and association of the metal with nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF), a rare but serious side effects in patients with renal or kidney problems. Manganese was one of the earliest reported examples of paramagnetic contrast material for MRI because of its efficient positive contrast enhancement. In this review, manganese based contrast agent approaches are discussed with a particular emphasis on their synthetic approaches. Both small molecules based typical blood pool contrast agents and more recently developed novel nanometer sized materials are reviewed focusing on a number of successful molecular imaging examples.