Patent ID: 8728439

Claim:
A method of measuring calcium ion efflux from cells comprising: a. obtaining one or more baseline T 1 -map(s) of the cells prior to contacting the cells with a plurality of manganese ions; b. contacting the cells with a plurality of manganese ions; c. obtaining one or more post-Mn 2+ T 1 map(s) of the cells after contacting the cells with a plurality of manganese ions; d. measuring the efflux of the manganese ions from the cells comprising measuring temporal ΔR 1 values and fitting the values to an exponential decay plot, wherein each ΔR 1 is calculated by the formula; ΔR 1 =(1/post-Mn 2+ T 1 map)−(1/baseline T 1 map) and e. correlating efflux of the manganese ions from the cells with the relative efflux of calcium ions from the cells.