A magnetometer cooled with liquid nitrogen for the characterization and quantification of magnetic nanoparticles in biological samples at room temperature

Abstract

For several medical applications of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) it is desired to know the quantity and characteristics of the particles in the tissue of interest. That can either be necessary to determine how successful a procedure was of how it will be. Therefore a system is built, that is suitable to analyze small intact biological samples at room temperature. The magnetometer is used for the analysis and selection of sentinel lymph nodes in colorectal cancer. In this clinical procedure MNPs are administered in the resected part of the colon to determine the sentinel lymph node. The magnetometer is based on copper wound coils and comprises of two detection coils in series opposition, enclosed by two separately driven excitation coils.