Page 7 - My FlipBook

An MRI produces a view of the
brain but distinguishing healthy
from unhealthy tissues can be
challenging. Researchers think they
can address this problem by injecting
nanoparticles to increase contrast.

nanoparticles potentially effective in the “detection of disease in a
lab sample . . . during the earliest stages of a disease.” 20
Among a large number of experimental uses of nanoparti-
cles for diagnosis is in creating clear, data-fi lled images of vari-
ous body parts. Traditionally, doctors take X-rays, MRIs (mag-
netic resonance images), or ultrasounds. These are all still in use
and can be effective. But they often produce images in which
unhealthy tissues are hard to see because of
a lack of contrast between healthy and un-
a lack of contrast between healthy and un-
healthy tissues. By injecting nanoparticles,
healthy tissues. By injecting nanoparticles,
“[Nanoparticles
doctors can signifi cantly increase that
produce] around ten doctors can signifi cantly increase that
times more contrast contrast because the particles are tiny
than [traditional] enough to penetrate any bodily tis-
contrast agents.” 21 sues. According to scientists at the
University of Basel in Switzerland, who
University of Basel in Switzerland, who
— Scientists at Switzerland’s
University of Basel
22