Thermal Excitation of Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents Using Spin Resonance

Theoretical and experimental investigations into the thermal excitation of liquid paramagnetic contrast agents using the spin resonance relaxation mechanism are presented. The electronic spin-lattice relaxation time τ(1e) of gadolinium-based contrast agents, which is estimated at 0.1 ns, is ten orders of magnitude faster than the relaxation time of protons in water. The shorter relaxation time is found to significantly increase the rate of thermal energy deposition. To the authors’ knowledge this is the first study of gadolinium based contrast agents in a liquid state used as thermal agents. Analysis shows that when τ(1e) and other experimental parameters are optimally selected, a maximum theoretical heating rate of 29.4 °C.s(−1) could be achieved which would suffice for clinical thermal ablation of neoplasms. The experimental results show a statistically significant thermal response for two out of the four contrast agents tested. The results are compared to the simulated estimates via analysis of a detailed model of the system. While these experimentally determined temperature rises are small and thus of no clinical utility, their presence supports the theoretical analysis and strongly suggests that the chemical structure of the selected compounds plays an important role in this mechanism of heat deposition. There exists an opportunity for the development of alternative gadolinium-based compounds with an order of magnitude longer τ(1e) in a diluted form to be used as an efficient hyperthermia agent for clinical use.