Figure 5 .

Serial imaging and quantification of inflammation and therapeutic response in arthritic rats. As depicted in Figure 4, arthritic rats undergoing steroid treatment or vehicle control underwent serial imaging with PFC contrast agent and ¹⁹F MRI. A. Representative slices from each of three control animals (1, 2, 3) and each of three treated animals (4, 5, 6) are depicted on days 15, 22 and 29. Each column represents slices from a single, serially imaged animal over time. B. The degree of inflammation as assessed by quantification of the concentration of ¹⁹F per limb was depicted over time in vehicle (left) and prednisolone treated (right) animals. C. The average change in ¹⁹F signal from t_i (day 15, the initial imaging session) to t_n (day 22 or day 29) in untreated (open columns) and prednisolone treated (filled columns) at days 22 and day 29 are shown. *Statistically significant as determined by unpaired T-test (P =7.29 x10^-6 at day 22 and P =1.65 x10^-8 at day 29).