Inflammation is a significant component of several chronic diseases involving the cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, and nervous systems. Timely identification and localization of inflammatory foci are critical for adequate treatment of patients. Conventional imaging techniques (computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound) may detect such pathology but mainly rely on anatomical changes and are not fully capable of discriminating active inflammatory pathology from the anatomical changes resulting from prior successful therapy or surgery. In addition, inflammatory foci cannot be detected in the early phase of development because of the lack of substantial anatomical changes at this time.

Nuclear imaging with radiotracers that accumulate at the site of inflammation has become an established tool in the evaluation of several inflammatory and infectious conditions. They can reveal molecular and cellular changes and provide sensitive detection of even small inflammatory and/or infectious foci at an early stage of disease.

This special issue would focus on the recent advances of different techniques used for imaging of inflammation and infection; provide an outline and examples of their clinical use in evaluation of inflammatory/infectious conditions; and discuss some of the emerging techniques that are currently being developed for imaging of inflammation/infection. This issue accepts original research articles as well as review articles. It will provide a multidisciplinary forum that will discuss pros and cons of established methods and probes in different clinical applications and show new developments in this area.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Methods for imaging of inflammation and infection
  • Nuclear imaging
  • Computed tomography
  • Magnetic resonance imaging
  • Ultrasound
  • Multimodal and hybrid imaging (PET/MRI; SPECT/MRI)
• Clinical conditions for imaging of inflammation and infection
  • Suspected systemic and local infections
  • Vasculitis
  • Sarcoidosis
  • Inflammatory bowel diseases
  • Arthritis
  • Other applications
• Emerging protocols for imaging of inflammation and infection
  • New imaging probes (chemistry and preclinical studies)