Although molecular imaging has had a dramatic impact on diagnostic imaging, it has only recently begun to be integrated into interventional procedures. Its significant impact is attributed to its ability to provide noninvasive, physiologic information that supplements conventional morphologic imaging. The four major interventional opportunities for molecular imaging are, first, to provide guida...

The recent introduction of novel gene therapies for treatment of cardiac and noncardiac diseases has caused a remarkable need for noninvasive imaging approaches to evaluate and track the progress of these therapies. In the past we have relied on the evaluation of the physiological consequences of therapeutic interventions. With advances in targeted molecular imaging we now have the ability to e...

There is a wealth of new fluorescent reporter technologies for tagging of many cellular and subcellular processes in vivo. This imposed contrast is now captured with an increasing number of available imaging methods that offer new ways to visualize and quantify fluorescent markers distributed in tissues. This is an evolving field of imaging sciences that has already achieved major advances but ...

Common-path in-line shearing interferometry, combined with pixel-array imaging, provides a surface metrology that achieves 15 pm surface height resolution. An eighth-wave thermal oxide on silicon generates a reference wave locked in the condition of phase quadrature for phase-to-intensity conversion that makes surface height or index variations directly detectable by an imaging system. The scal...

Molecular MRI (mMRI) is a special implementation of Molecular Imaging for the non-invasive visualisation of biological processes at the cellular and molecular level. More specifically, mMRI comprises the contrast agent-mediated alteration of tissue relaxation times for the detection and localisation of molecular disease markers (such as cell surface receptors, enzymes or signaling molecules), c...

A wide variety of imaging approaches have been developed in the past few decades for monitoring tumor oxygenation and hypoxia in vivo. In particular, nuclear medicine has seen the development of several radiolabeled hypoxia markers and is the preferred method for imaging of tumor hypoxia. Hypoxia imaging is increasingly being used in the clinical setting and is progressing from a mere detection...

Molecular imaging aims to visualize the cellular and molecular processes occurring in living tissues, and for the imaging of specific molecules in vivo, the development of reporter probes and dedicated imaging equipment is most important. Reporter genes can be used to monitor the delivery and magnitude of therapeutic gene transfer, and the time variation involved. Imaging technologies such as m...

Recent progress in the development of non-invasive imaging technologies continues to strengthen the role of molecular imaging in biological research. Small animal imaging with bioluminescence has been validated recently in a variety of research models and have been shown to provide continuous quantitative monitoring of the location(s), magnitude, and time-variation of gene delivery and/or expre...

Radiopharmaceuticals for molecular imaging involve careful consideration of the following two factors: radionuclide selection and specificity to the molecular target. In selecting a radionuclide, the specific decay mode, physical half-life, chemical properties, and method of production must be considered. For proper design of a radiopharmaceutical which targets a specific biological or disease ...