Chapter 22 - Cerenkov Imaging

Abstract

Cerenkov Luminescence (CL) is the phenomenon by which charged particles that exceed the velocity of light in a dielectric medium produce a continuous spectrum of light, mainly in the ultraviolet to visible blue light. With the recent emergence of affordable sensitive single photon imaging systems, CL has emerged in molecular imaging as a new imaging modality alongside radiotracer-based systems, such as SPECT and PET, including unconventional alpha emitting nuclides as well. Furthermore, CL combined with fluorophores and/or nanoparticles can shift wavelengths to a more penetrating part of the spectrum, provide biologically activated smart sensor probes, or act as the trigger for activatable probes, providing a multiplexing imaging platform. As a nascent chapter in molecular imaging, CL has, unlike any other modality, expanded quickly beyond a preclinical technique and entered several clinical trials showing that clinical CL is not only feasible but can in fact be a portable, scalable sentinel tool in medical diagnosis where other nuclear medicine imaging techniques would be physically and cost-prohibitive.