摘要
Objective： The aim of the study was to investigate the developing situation of the interstitial magnetic resonance （MR） lymphoid contrast agent Dextran-DTPA-Gd through the rabbit popliteal fossa lymph node metastasis from thigh VX2 transplanted tumor injection to show targeting enhanced metastatic lymph nodes and lymphatics. Methods： VX2 tumor was transplanted to the right hind limb quadriceps of 12 healthy New Zealand rabbits and the left side as a contrast. Eight rabbits had homonymy popliteal lymph node metastasis after 1 month through 3.0 GE MRI and they were later injected with lym phatic targeting contrast agent Dextran-DTPA-Gd 0.4 mL （3.96 x 10^-3 tool/L） through bilateral hindlimb toe web respectively. Enhanced MR images were obtained with interval 10 min, 15 min, 20 rain, 25 min, 30 rain, 35 min, 40 rain, 45 rain, 50 min, 55 min, 60 min, 2 h, 4 h, and 24 h. The signal intensities before and after enhancing were measured to calculate the enhanc- ing rates （E%） of popliteal lymph node and the popliteal lymph node signal intensity-time curves were drawn to observe the development of cancer metastasis lymph nodes and lymphatics and to compare the differences of interval sides. Results： Ten minutes after injected into the rabbit＇s bilateral hindlimb toe web, we could see hind lymphatic and popliteal lymph nodes were strengthened significantly and evenly without blood vessels developing. The signal reached a peak after 35 rain with E% to 315%, which decreased to 205% after 4 h and would be undifferentiated with the surrounding tissues after 24 h. Sta- tistical analysis was made to popliteal lymph node enhancement rate. It was considered statistically significant as long as P 〈 0.05. The tumor-side popliteal lymph node manifested as coarse and irregular shape, lymphatic vessels tortuous dilated and lymphatic chain incomplete as a result of tumor infection. Conclusion： Dextran-DTPA-Gd is specific to lymphoid tissue development. It can targeting display regional lymphatic drainage concretion and the morphology of normal and cancer cells metastasis lymph nodes rapidly.
