Preface

Biomedical imaging is improving healthcare and helps selecting the most efficient therapy. Imaging technologies provide snapshots of biomarkers and diseases such as cancer. Imaging can take this information even a step further, showing the activity of these markers in vivo and how their location changes over time. Advances in experimental and clinical imaging are likely to enable doctors not only to locate and delineate the disease but also to assess the activity of the biological processes and to provide localized treatment. New imaging technologies are increasingly being used to understand the biological complexity, diversity, and the in vivo behaviour. Imaging is considered an important bridge between basic research and bed-side application.

A wide range of technologies is already available for in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro imaging. The introduction of new imaging instrumentation requires the combination of know-how in medicine and biology, in data processing, in engineering, and in science. Biologists and MDs are interested in technical basics and methods of measurement. Engineers need detailed descriptions of the biomedical basis of the measured data. Scientists want more background information on instrumentation and measurement techniques. Different imaging modalities always have specific strengths and weaknesses. For each modality, the basics of how it works, important information parameters, and the state-of-the-art instrumentation are described in this book. Examples of imaging applications are presented.

X-rays, gamma rays, radiofrequency signals, and ultrasound waves are standard probes, but others such as visible and infrared light, microwaves, terahertz rays, and intrinsic and applied electric and magnetic fields are being explored. Some of the younger technologies, such as molecular imaging, may enhance existing imaging modalities; however, they also, in combination with nanotechnology, biotechnology, bioinformatics, and new forms of computational hardware and software, may well lead to novel approaches to clinical imaging. This review provides a brief overview of the current state of image-based diagnostic medicine and offers comments on the directions in which some of its subfields may be heading.

Visualization can augment our ability to reason about complex data, thereby increasing the efficiency of manual analyses. In some cases, the appropriate image makes the solution obvious. The first two chapters give an overview of existing methods and tools for visualization and highlight some of their limitations and challenges. The next chapters describe technology and applications of established imaging modalities such as X-ray imaging, CT (Computed Tomography), MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), and tracer imaging. The final part deals with imaging technologies using light (fluorescence imaging, infrared and Raman imaging, CARS microscopy) or sound (biomedical sonography and acoustic microscopy).

Thanks go to all authors for their efforts and commitments to the publication of this volume. The support by the publisher WILEY in the final composition and edition of the book should be acknowledged as well. The greatest debt of gratitude goes to our families for their patience and encouragement.