Introduction

In animal studies, Nanobrite™ produces excellent renal vessel images, which should greatly improve the imaging of both normal renal vessels, as when kidney transplant donors are being evaluated, and abnormal vessels, as when renal artery stenosis or renal carcinoma patients are being evaluated. Furthermore, the significant population of patients with renal insufficiency who are currently excluded from evaluation using gadolinium based contrast agents (GBCAs) may be able to use Nanobrite™ with increased assurance of safety.

This Nanobrite™ technology has repeatedly demonstrated its advantages over commercially available contrast agents in animal models such as:

Figure 1: Rat - 3T MRI dose comparisons in rats – all values are mmol/kg – arrows point to heart. In an imaging study in rats comparing commercially available Omniscan (A, 0.05 mmole/kg), Vasovist (B, 0.03 mmole/kg) against significantly lower doses of Nanobrite™ (C, 0.00125; D, 0.01 and E, 0.02 mmole/kg), superior images can be seen in images D and E versus A and B.

Figure 2: Pig - Pig Renal Images. FP = First Pass. In studies using pigs, a comparison of the commercially available Ablavar revealed the images had greatly diminished from the First Pass of the contrast agent when reimaged at 15 minutes. In comparison, Nanobrite™ had a clear image of the vasculature at 20 minutes post injection.