Medical Imaging

Medical imaging encompasses all techniques and processes used to look inside the human body for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Medical imaging is used in all minimally invasive operations. HDTV (high definition television) is a further development of analogue procedures that can improve operating procedures and outcomes in minimally invasive surgery. “Gamma finders” are also seen as a promising new technology for locating lymph nodes that may be cancerous, and are used in minimally invasive sentinel lymph node biopsies. Among diagnostic methods, molecular imaging is seen as trend-setting. This method employs new contrast substances, which can dock directly onto individual cells and thereby show the slightest metabolic activity at molecular level. Most approaches are based on the depiction of local macrophage activity in the course of an infection. Areas of application are the detection of lymph node metastases, vulnerable plaques in atherosclerosis, infections in multiple sclerosis, acute transplant rejection or monitoring (stem) cell therapy.