Michal Neeman

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death, despite significant progress in identification of risk factors and preventive, as well as interventional therapy. Non invasive molecular imaging offers promise of advancing the research of the progression of this disease and eventually could impact patient care. Some of the underlying changes that occur during CVD can be detected by MRI, including changes in inflammation, involvement of macrophages and deposition of collagen during scar formation. Molecular probes can be targeted towards ECM or cell surface markers. Endogenous contrast can be used for detection of collagen deposition and vessel permeability, and reporter genes can be used for tracking tissue remodeling and stem  cell regenerative therapy. Recent breakthroughs in evaluation of the control of cell cycle arrest in the heart may open new paths for enabling cardiac repair.

René Botnar

Molecular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a promising tool to detect molecular and cellular changes in the carotid, aortic and coronary vessel wall including endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, vascular remodelling, enzymatic activity, intraplaque haemorrhage and fibrin deposition and thus may allow early detection of unstable lesions and improve the prediction of future coronary events. To increase the biological information obtained by MRI a variety of targeted-specific molecular probes have been developed for the non-invasive visualisation of particular biological processes at the molecular and cellular level. This presentation will discuss recent advances in molecular MRI of atherosclerosis, covering both pulse sequence development and also the design of novel contrast agents, for imaging atherosclerotic disease in vivo.