Perfluoroctylbromide as a gastrointestinal contrast agent for MR imaging: Use with and without glucagon

The utility of perfluoroctylbromide (PFOB) as a gastrointestinal contrast agent for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was evaluated with MR examinations performed in 30 subjects (16 healthy volunteers and 14 patients). Transaxial T1-, proton density-, and T2-weighted MR images were acquired in each subject before and after the administration of PFOB. The healthy volunteers each underwent two sets of post-PFOB MR examinations, one before and one after glucagon administration. The degree of bowel marking, clarity of bowel-wall visualization, ability to distinguish bowel from adjacent parenchymal organs, and severity of phase-encoding artifacts were independently analyzed by two reviewers. Oral administration of PFOB significantly (P < .001) increased the percentage of bowel loops with low signal intensity. Subcutaneous administration of glucagon significantly (P < .001) increased the clarity of bowel-wall visualization on post-PFOB MR studies. The severity of phase-encoding artifacts did not change substantially after administration of PFOB or glucagon.