Selected Papers from the 4th International Conference on Inflammation and Infection Imaging

Dear Colleagues,

Following a tradition started in 1993, the 4th edition of the International Congress on "Imaging infections and inflammation" has been organized in Roma (Italy) from 5 to 7 December, 2024.

Scientific sessions included cardiovascular infections, bone infections, sterile inflammatory diseases, tumor microenvironments, and radiolabeled probes for imaging bacteria and fungi.

Each session included several lectures and roundtable discussions with the participation of several scientists and clinicians, experts in the field.

The best three oral presentations were given awards.

Since the high clinical relevance of such congress and the number and quality of studies presented, we decided to launch a Special Issue of the Journal of Clinical Medicine that could include all abstracts of congress presentations and a few selected full papers, accepted after peer review.

The early diagnosis of occult infections is a very important issue in medicine, especially for infections that do not present with obvious clinical signs but can have serious consequences if not treated promptly. The use of imaging techniques to detect hidden infections is becoming increasingly important due to their ability to visualize areas of the body that are difficult to explore, often before serious symptoms develop.

In addition to computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound, nuclear medicine techniques have improved enormously in the last decade thanks to the availability of several new radiopharmaceuticals for single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and positron emission tomography (PET) use.

Rapid identification of occult infections will allow starting targeted and personalized treatment, reducing the risk of complications.

Furthermore, early diagnosis of infection in the early stages will contribute to reducing the costs of patients’ treatment with better prognoses, especially in immunocompromised patients or those with comorbidities.

One of the major challenges is the differential diagnosis between sterile inflammation and septic infection. Despite the use of radiolabeled autologous white blood cells that can allow us to differentiate inflammation from infection, the gold standard technique would be to directly image and quantify the presence of bacteria or fungi.

Another important field of application of nuclear medicine techniques is the study of tumor microenvironments. Here, by using radiopharmaceuticals that specifically target fibroblasts, lymphocytes, endothelial, or mesenchymal cells, the aim is to establish a non-invasive tool for prognostic purposes and for selecting tailored treatment.

Both fields have an enormous clinical and economic impact and will drive nuclear medicine research for the next decades.

Prof. Dr. Alberto Signore
Dr. Chiara Lauri
Dr. Michela Varani
Guest Editors

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• infection imaging
• inflammation imaging
• imaging tumor micro-environment
• bacteria imaging
• new radiopharmaceuticals