Molecular imaging in radiology: the latest fad or the new frontier?

Excerpt

Molecular imaging is “hot”. The past 5 years have seen a gradual increase in the number of publications on this topic in concert with the release of a number of specialized journals and the foundation of several “Molecular Imaging Institutes”. More papers utilizing (repeatedly) the term “Molecular Imaging” have been published in the last month than in the entire year 2000. What is all this commotion about? At a first glance it may seem to be a hype, with a lot of effort being put into formulating the right definition of what “Molecular Imaging” entails. Several renowned researchers have launched a definition that encompasses the visualization/characterization of biological processes in living organisms [1, 2]. However, at the April 2005 summit on molecular imaging organized by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) and the Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM), a large panel of physicians and scientists, representing societies of biomedical imaging professionals and nuclear medicine specialists from around the world, agreed that the existing definitions do not fully cover the existing variety of imaging tools available in humans and in animals. In order to correct this deficit the group developed the following definition: “MI techniques directly or indirectly monitor and record the spatiotemporal distribution of molecular or cellular processes for biochemical, biologic, diagnostic, or therapeutic applications” [3, 4]. …