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Editorials

"Feeling the RAGE" in the Atherosclerotic Vessel Wall

Zahi A. Fayad, PhD and Esad Vucic, MD

From the Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.

Correspondence to Zahi A. Fayad, PhD, Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1234, New York, NY 10029. Email zahi.fayad@mssm.edu

Key Words: arteriosclerosis • imaging • plaque • radioisotopes

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Molecular imaging can be broadly defined as the in vivo characterization and measurement of biological processes at the cellular and molecular level.¹ In this context, the noninvasive detection of molecular signatures of disease entities using molecular imaging holds great promise for the development of personalized medicine and drug development.^2,3 One of the first clinically validated and useful tomographic molecular imaging techniques was implemented in the field of oncology, with the use of [¹⁸F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron-emission tomography (PET) and, more recently, that of FDG PET/computed tomography (CT) in cancer diagnosis and management. Although traditionally the primary focus has been on cancer biology, molecular imaging techniques have been expanded into the field of cardiovascular disease for a wide variety of clinically important entities.⁴ Especially, the molecular imaging of atherosclerosis has gained much attention.

Article see p 212

One major focus of molecular imaging of atherosclerosis is the detection of vessel wall inflammation and associated atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability. Conventional imaging modalities, such as x-ray angiography, can precisely define the artery lumen but do not provide any additional information about plaque composition or its grade of inflammation and associated risk of rupture. The accurate determination of the plaque inflammatory state might permit more precise patient risk stratification, better monitoring of therapy response, and rapid evaluation of novel therapeutic drugs by serial imaging. Historically, radionuclide conjugated antibodies were one of the earliest methods applied for the detection of biologically relevant molecules or epitopes in molecular imaging of cardiovascular disease.⁵ These initial approaches were refined . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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