Molecular Imaging in Ischemic Heart Disease

Abstract

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.