Small Intestinal Transit and Motor Function in Health and IBS Patients Studied by Combined 1H and 19F Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The aim of this project is to demonstrate and validate the ionizing radiation free and non invasive assessment of small intestinal anatomy, content and function in healthy and disease by a newly developed combined proton (1H) and fluorine (19F) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) framework. Meal induced and pathology related alterations in small intestinal motor activity, gas distribution and anatomy of healthy volunteers and patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) will be analyzed with this non invasive MRI approach.

The multinuclear imaging framework consists of a 1H and 19F capable clinical 3T MRI system with standard 1H abdominal surface coils, a dual-channel transmit-receive abdominal 19F surface coil, fluorine labelled impermeable and biocompatible capsules for oral administration (19F capsule) and a 19F projection imaging sequence allowing for the non-invasive detection of the gastrointestinal positions of single and multiple ingested capsules in real time. Dedicated post-processing algorithms are applied to extract parameters of intestinal motor activity from the detected intraluminal capsule movements.

The proposed unique imaging modality allows for the concurrent, non invasive and repeated analysis of important physiologic parameters of intestinal function together with detailed anatomical information and thus presents an ideal tool for the evaluation of the analyzed parameters as potential biomarkers in IBS.

• Trial with medical device