Our long term objective is to develop our patented technology which permits us to visualize early local metabolic alterations in disease or injury in organ systems into a broad based diagnostic modality. Our immediate & pressing aim is to develop our technology for the visualization of early myocardial injury into a clinically relevant approach to non-invasive evaluation of myocardial viability. Using existing and widely available clinical NMR systems in conjunction with our patented technology for the delivery of oxygen seventeen and using a fluorocarbon carrier followed by the observation of metabolites of oxygen seventeen at metabolically altered sites, we have been able to observe a local region of myocardial injury following reversible occlusion of the left anterior descending artery in the anesthetized dog. Clearly the broad ramifications of imaging organ sites with abnormal metabolic activity as a precursor of the distortions of water distribution can provide new insights into the early stages of organ dysfunction. Our methodology depends on the differential conversion of oxygen seventeen at metabolically altered site into the NMR visible water molecule containing oxygen seventeen. The role of the accumulation of the fluorocarbons at the altered local site as a potential kinetic enhancer of the conversion is at present unknown and will be explored. Its potential as a messenger of local tissue abnormality will also be evaluated by fluorine imaging.
