Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Jun 25, 2015; 6(6): 792-806
Published online Jun 25, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i6.792
Diagnostic and prognostic utility of non-invasive imaging in diabetes management
Cristina Barsanti, Francesca Lenzarini, Claudia Kusmic
Cristina Barsanti, Francesca Lenzarini, Claudia Kusmic, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Italian National Research Council, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Author contributions: Kusmic C conceived and designed the review; Lenzarini F and Kusmic C search and analysis of references; Barsanti C and Kusmic C wrote the paper.
Supported by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy, No. CNR-DG.RSTL.035.007-035.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Claudia Kusmic, PhD, Institute of Clinical Physiology, Italian National Research Council, Via G Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy. kusmic@ifc.cnr.it
Telephone: +39-50-3153306
Received: August 27, 2014
Peer-review started: August 31, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: December 23, 2014
Accepted: April 10, 2015
Article in press: April 14, 2015
Published online: June 25, 2015
Processing time: 296 Days and 22 Hours
Abstract

Medical imaging technologies are acquiring an increasing relevance to assist clinicians in diagnosis and to guide management and therapeutic treatment of patients, thanks to their non invasive and high resolution properties. Computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasonography are the most used imaging modalities to provide detailed morphological reconstructions of tissues and organs. In addition, the use of contrast dyes or radionuclide-labeled tracers permits to get functional and quantitative information about tissue physiology and metabolism in normal and disease state. In recent years, the development of multimodal and hydrid imaging techniques is coming to be the new frontier of medical imaging for the possibility to overcome limitations of single modalities and to obtain physiological and pathophysiological measurements within an accurate anatomical framework. Moreover, the employment of molecular probes, such as ligands or antibodies, allows a selective in vivo targeting of biomolecules involved in specific cellular processes, so expanding the potentialities of imaging techniques for clinical and research applications. This review is aimed to give a survey of characteristics of main diagnostic non-invasive imaging techniques. Current clinical appliances and future perspectives of imaging in the diagnostic and prognostic assessment of diabetic complications affecting different organ systems will be particularly addressed.

Keywords: Medical non-invasive imaging; Diabetes; Diabetic complications; Molecular imaging; Multimodal imaging; Hybrid scanners

Core tip: Non-invasive imaging techniques are increasingly employed in every medical field, both for diagnostic purposes and for monitoring of pathological progression and/or efficacy of treatments. Several imaging modalities are currently available to provide structural and functional information about tissue and organ physiology, and thanks to technical improvements and development of hybrid devices, multimodal imaging combining advantages of different techniques offers now new potentialities for research and clinics. Aim of this review is to overview the principal features of most used diagnostic imaging modalities and to explore main current and forthcoming applications for the study and management of diabetes and its complications.