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Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports
Published in: Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports 7/2019

Open Access 01-07-2019 | Magnetic Resonance Imaging | Molecular Imaging (J Wu and P Nguyen, Section Editors)

Molecular Imaging in Ischemic Heart Disease

Authors: Begoña Lavin Plaza, Iakovos Theodoulou, Imran Rashid, Reza Hajhosseiny, Alkystis Phinikaridou, Rene M. Botnar

Published in: Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports | Issue 7/2019

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Abstract

Purpose of Review

The purpose of this paper is to review current and new modalities to image key biological processes in ischemic heart disease and after myocardial infarction non-invasively.

Recent Findings

New imaging targets have been developed to detect and quantify myocardial damage after ischemia. Although positron emission tomography (PET) has been leading the development of new probes in the past, continuous improvements of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) together with the development of new novel MRI contrast agents opens new research avenues including the combination of both PET and MRI to obtain anatomic, functional, and molecular information simultaneously, which is not possible from a single imaging session.

Summary

This review summarizes the state of art of non-invasive molecular imaging of the myocardium during ischemia and after myocardial infarction using PET and MRI. We also describe the different contrast agents that have been developed to image the different phases of cardiac healing and the biological processes associated with each of those phases. Importantly, here we focus on imaging of inflammation as it is the key biological process that orchestrates clearance of dead cells, tissue remodeling, cardiac repair, and future outcome. We also focus on clinical translation of some of the novel contrast agents that have been tested in patients and discuss the need for larger, multi-center patient studies to fully validate the applicability of new imaging probes.
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Metadata
Title
Molecular Imaging in Ischemic Heart Disease
Authors
Begoña Lavin Plaza
Iakovos Theodoulou
Imran Rashid
Reza Hajhosseiny
Alkystis Phinikaridou
Rene M. Botnar
Publication date
01-07-2019
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports / Issue 7/2019
Print ISSN: 1941-9066
Electronic ISSN: 1941-9074
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12410-019-9500-x

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