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Novel Nano diamond based dye to improve MRI

Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a novel nanodiamond-based contrast agent -- a chemical "dye" used to enhance the visibility of internal body structures in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) -- that improves visualisation of liver cancer tumours. Better and more sensitive imaging contributes towards detecting liver cancer and is crucial for planning for treatment. MRI is a medical imaging technique commonly used for cancer diagnosis and to track the progress of patients after treatment. Currently, there are two modes of MRI imaging, T1-weighted and T2-weighted imaging, and patients are often given contrast agents to improve imaging quality. However, each imaging mode requires a specific class of contrast agent which cannot be used together. This poses a greater challenge in the diagnosis of liver cancer, where T2-weighted imaging is still not considered reliable, and both T1- and T2-weighted imaging can be confounded by tumour vascul...