Effective bowel motion reduction in mouse abdominal MRI using hyoscine butylbromide

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Preclinical Research
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Bowel motion significantly impacts mouse abdominal MRI quality.
• Existing methods like fasting and hyoscine butylbromide (BUSC) show inconsistent results for motion reduction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate fasting and hyoscine butylbromide (BUSC) regimes for reducing bowel motion in mouse abdominal MRI.
• To assess the efficacy of different BUSC doses and fasting protocols at high magnetic field strengths.

Main Methods:

• Thirty-two mice underwent 9.4T MRI with a FLASH sequence.
• Groups received low-dose BUSC (0.5 mg/kg), high-dose BUSC (5 mg/kg), fasting, or saline.
• Image analysis included expert review and quantitative voxel-wise assessment of motion.

Main Results:

• High-dose BUSC was the most effective protocol, reducing bowel motion for up to 45 minutes.
• Fasting and saline treatments did not effectively suppress bowel motion.
• High-resolution T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted images showed improved quality and ADC quantification with high-dose BUSC.

Conclusions:

• Hyoscine butylbromide (BUSC) administration is beneficial for mouse abdominal MRI.
• High-dose BUSC provides significant bowel motion reduction with rapid onset and sustained effect.
• This improves the quality of high-resolution mouse abdominal MRI and quantitative assessments.