Functional imaging
 | This articleneeds morereliable medical referencesforverificationor relies too heavily onprimary sources.(September 2018) |  |
| Functional imaging | |
|---|---|
| Purpose | measuring changes in metabolism |
Functional imaging(orphysiological imaging) is amedical imagingtechnique of detecting or measuring changes inmetabolism,blood flow, regional chemical composition, and absorption.
As opposed to structural imaging, functional imaging centers on revealingphysiologicalactivities within a certain tissue or organ by employing medical image modalities that very often usetracersor probes to reflect spatial distribution of them within the body. These tracers are oftenanalogousto some chemical compounds, like glucose, within the body. To achieve this, isotopes are used because they have similar chemical and biological characteristics. By appropriate proportionality, thenuclear medicine physicianscan determine the real intensity of certain substances within the body to evaluate the risk or danger of developing some diseases.
Modalities
[edit]- Positron emission tomography(PET)
- Fludeoxyglucosefor Glucose metabolism
- O-15 as a flow tracer
- Single-photon emission computed tomography(SPECT)
- Computed tomography (CT) perfusion imaging
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)
- Functional photoacoustic microscopy(fPAM)
- Magnetic particle imaging(MPI)
- Optical imaging