Molecular Imaging of Atherosclerosis

Molecular imaging is a rapidly evolving field that aims to develop novel technologies and methods to image specific biological processes in the living organism at the cellular and molecular level. This review discusses several novel imaging strategies that exploit the unique biological properties of atherosclerosis to detect key aspects of the disease. Among the approaches, targeting macrophage activity, protease activity, apoptosis and angiogenesis for in vivo molecular imaging of atherosclerosis have demonstrated the greatest potential for translation into the clinical setting.