Molecular Imaging

Definition

Molecular imaging is an interdisciplinary approach to noninvasively assess disease-specific structures in a living organism. When using the term molecular imaging in the narrow sense, imaging of molecular structures is referred to, but in the broader sense also, the assessment of morphology in high resolution; functional and metabolic parameters are included. When applying the broader definition, the following imaging techniques are most relevant: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), computed tomography (CT), ultrasound (US), optical imaging (OI), positron emission tomography (PET), and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Each imaging modality produces data with advantages and disadvantages containing complementary information from a region of interest. For probe design, data acquisition, and image postprocessing, knowledge from biology, chemistry, physics, pharmacology, informatics, and medicine is required. MR...