The development of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging as a clinical diagnostic modality has promoted the need for a new class of pharmaceuticals. These drugs would be administered to a patient to enhance the image contrast between the normal and diseased tissues. The image intensity in ~1HNMR imaging, composed of the NMR signals of water protons, is dependent on the nuclear relaxation times. Complexes of paramagnetic transition and lanthanide ions, which can decrease the relaxation times of nearby nuclei via dipolar interactions, have received much attention as the potential con-