Emerging cardiovascular molecular imaging approaches

New molecular imaging technologies, in particular optical ones, are increasingly used to understand the complexity and heterogeneity of cardiovascular diseases. While ‘omic’ approaches can provide us with comprehensive ‘snapshots’ of biomarkers, imaging studies can be used to understand the spatiotemporal activity of these markers in vivo. Imaging has also advanced clinically, and will ultimately allow us to determine disease activity and therapy response. In addition, newer developments will likely have an impact on our understanding of biology at the systems level, promote earlier clinical diagnosis and accelerate drug development.