Preface

Medical imaging is a rapidly growing field with recent tremendous technical developments. Great achievements have been made regarding disease diagnosis from basic science to clinical applications. Most well-known imaging modalities include the widely used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positronemission tomography (PET), and X-ray computed tomography (CT). With the high-resolution imaging acquisitions and advanced imaging processing methods, accurate and precise functional, structural, and molecular images can be applied to patients to improve diagnosis and treatment. Several distinct imaging perspectives such as cutting-edge imaging methods from principles to data analysis, better correlation with neurocognitive function, as well as detailed examples and summaries of disease monitoring could help convey the methodological, technical, and developmental information of medical imaging principles and applications.

The first section of the book provides functional MRI (fMRI) and structural imaging techniques and applications. Chapter 1 assesses baseline and longitudinal functional and structural connectivity changes associated with age and gender at both baseline and longitudinal follow-up time points. Correlation with neurocognitive data from a large sample of healthy older adults and apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotypic effects has been investigated thoroughly. The strengths of this study are the extensive and well-characterized large sample of older adults and multiple imaging metrics, including advanced fMRI, multiple structural imaging to capture extensive properties of functional connectivity, activity, and white matter integrity, and myelination. The results in this chapter are presented with full-spectrum quantification of neuroimaging and neurocognitive/genetopic data with significant impact on the longitudinal neuroimaging application field. Chapter 2 describes the brain regions of neuropathic pain studied with fMRI techniques, including resting state and task fMRI and structural changes. The introduction of fMRI techniques and central mechanisms of neuropathic pain, including pain perception and processing in the brain, stages of pain (chronic), and two types of pain (hyperalgesia vs. allodynia), are covered in detail. The significance of fMRI in the treatment of neuropathic pain has been evaluated, including consistent quantification of pain intensity, treatment efficacy, and non-invasive transcranial stimulation application. This review chapter provided readers with the current status and future directions of fMRI technology to better serve the clinic and assist in the diagnosis and prognosis of neuropathic pain.

The second section of the book covers the imaging principles of X-ray radiation, PET, and applications in cancer. Chapter 3 gives a detailed and quantitative description of radiation interaction, substance absorption, and PET/CT imaging detection systems. The principles of ionizing radiation interaction with matter and participant are introduced for different particles, including photons, electrons, and heavy charged particles. Different types of possible attenuations and absorptions are covered. Radiation detectors and data acquisition as well as reconstruction systems of several imaging modalities are described. The strong points of this chapter are accurate formula layout and illustrative figures. Chapter 4 investigates PET/CT (with anatomy details from CT and metabolism information from PET)

applications in lung cancer diagnosing, staging, and treatment. Several aspects, including clinical features, classification, grading, and pathology of lung cancer, principles of PET/CT, and evaluation of diagnosing and treatment, are reviewed. This chapter gives a good example of cancer imaging diagnosis and applications, including detailed demonstrations of each cancer sub-type, staging criteria, and classification, as well as better clinical evaluations.

The third section refers to the imaging processing technique and its development. Chapter 5 gives an overview of the medical imaging processing perspectives from principles to post-analysis applications. Medical imaging is developing rapidly due to developments in imaging processing techniques, including image recognition, analysis, and enhancement. Several imaging modalities used for disease diagnosis and processing methods, including registration, segmentation, and edge detection, are described as well. This chapter presents multiple examples of image analysis application, and illustrates commonly used image processing algorithms for higher spatial and temporal resolution as well as better clinical interpretation.

> **Yongxia Zhou, PhD** University of Southern California and Columbia University, Los Angeles, California, USA

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Section 1

Magnetic Resonance

Imaging and Applications

Section 1
