Department of Radiology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI 53705-2275, USA.
Curr Vasc Pharmacol. 2010 Nov;8(6):808-19. doi: 10.2174/157016110793563898.
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) is a common, progressive, and potentially lethal vascular disease. A major obstacle in AAA research, as well as patient care, is the lack of technology that enables non-invasive acquisition of molecular/cellular information in the developing AAA. In this review we will briefly summarize the current techniques (e.g. ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging) for anatomical imaging of AAA. We also discuss the various functional imaging techniques that have been explored for AAA imaging. In many cases, these anatomical and functional imaging techniques are not sufficient for providing surgeons/clinicians enough information about each individual AAA (e.g. rupture risk) to optimize patient management. Recently, molecular imaging techniques (e.g. optical and radionuclide-based) have been employed to visualize the molecular alterations associated with AAA, which are discussed in this review. Lastly, we try to provide a glance into the future and point out the challenges for AAA imaging. We believe that the future of AAA imaging lies in the combination of anatomical and molecular imaging techniques, which are largely complementary rather than competitive. Ultimately, with the right molecular imaging probe, clinicians will be able to monitor AAA growth and evaluate the risk of rupture accurately, so that the life-saving surgery can be provided to the right patients at the right time. Equally important, the right imaging probe will also allow scientists/clinicians to acquire critical data during AAA development and to more accurately evaluate the efficacy of potential treatments.
腹主动脉瘤（AAA）是一种常见的、进行性的、潜在致命的血管疾病。AAA 研究以及患者护理的一个主要障碍是缺乏能够非侵入性获取正在发展的 AAA 中分子/细胞信息的技术。在这篇综述中，我们将简要总结 AAA 的解剖成像的当前技术（例如超声、计算机断层扫描和磁共振成像）。我们还讨论了已探索用于 AAA 成像的各种功能成像技术。在许多情况下，这些解剖和功能成像技术不足以向外科医生/临床医生提供有关每个个体 AAA（例如破裂风险）的足够信息，以优化患者管理。最近，已经采用了分子成像技术（例如光学和基于放射性核素的技术）来可视化与 AAA 相关的分子改变，这在本文综述中进行了讨论。最后，我们试图展望未来并指出 AAA 成像的挑战。我们相信，AAA 成像的未来在于解剖和分子成像技术的结合，这两种技术在很大程度上是互补的，而不是竞争的。最终，通过正确的分子成像探针，临床医生将能够准确监测 AAA 的生长并评估破裂的风险，以便在适当的时间为适当的患者提供救生手术。同样重要的是，正确的成像探针还将使科学家/临床医生能够在 AAA 发展过程中获取关键数据，并更准确地评估潜在治疗方法的疗效。
