Model AuroVist 15 nm -Gold Blood Pool X-ray Contrast Agent for Micro CT
AuroVist-15 nm: Highest contrast of any blood pool contrast agent; Longest blood residence of any x-ray contrast agent. An independent comparison study of microCT contrast agents evaluated AuroVist 15 nm against eXIA160XL, ExiTron nano 12000 and an equivalent iodine-based contrast agent. Their conclusion: "AuroVist 15 nm provided the highest attenuation...AuroVist 15 nm is best suited for anatomical investigation of the vascular network." Laura Nebuloni, Gisela A. Kuhn, Ralph Müller. A Comparative Analysis of Water-Soluble and Blood-Pool Contrast Agents for in vivo Vascular Imaging with Micro-CT. Academic Radiology 2013; 20:1247–1255. "Gold nanoparticles (AuNp) are becoming one of the most promising contrast agents for CT due to their remarkable properties including high x-ray absorption coefficient, tailored surface chemistry, and excellent biocompatibility."
- Highest contrast of any blood pool contrast agent
- Longest blood residence time
of any contrast agent available - 24 hours!
- 200 mg Au/mL injected into mouse gives 1800 HU in blood vessels
- Low toxicity: LD50 >5.0 g Au/kg
- Low osmolality, even at high concentrations
- Low viscosity, similar to water; easy to inject, even into small vessels
- Long imaging times and high contrast:
Ideal for imaging by microCT - Can be concentrated to 600 mg Au/mL for super contrast
- Sized to use EPR- leaks out of bloodstream into angiogenic, cancerous tissue for theranostics
- 10 mice per 40 mg vial has been reported to work well for general use by our customers.
- 2 mice per 40 mg vial yields very high contrast. Nebuloni et al. used this dose in their 2013 comparative study, finding an attenuation of 2.33/mm, much better than the other x-ray contrast agents at equivalent dose.
- For super-resolution, use the entire 40 mg vial per mouse. This is the dose used in Hainfeld et al.`s 2013 paper. We don`t see toxicity problems in our laboratory with even very high doses-- we have so far only been limited by the total volume that a mouse can take.
- Remember that the blood half-life is 24 hours, so repeat imaging is possible even days after a single injection: