Preclinical Efficacy of Silicon-based Dual Energy CT Contrast Material

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Our long term goal is to revolutionize the safety and effectiveness of computed tomography (CT) imaging for millions of Americans across a broad range of gastrointestinal disease. Bowel and intravenous contrast materials improve the CT imaging of abdominal disease. Unfortunately, none of the current clinical contrast materials are visibly different from the others at imaging, even on modern dual energy CT (DECT) scanners, because all agents are based on iodine or bariumwhich attenuate X-rays similarly across different X-ray spectra. This limitation leads to ambiguous images that cost over 2B in medical errors annually in the USA. We now have dramatic preclinical in vivo data showing that novel oral silicone materials can be delivered concurrently with yet be easily differentiated from current iodinated intravenous agents to produce simultaneous, high-resolution, perfectly co-registered CT images of the bowel and vasculature in a single pass of the DECT scanner. Such