New Promising Targets for Imaging in Infection

The diagnosis of infection is crucial in-patient survival, prevention of prolonged hospitalization and undue morbidity and mortality. This can be achieved using various tools target at the specific microbes or the host immune response components. The most useful tool will be one that diagnoses the specific causative microbe by being able to distinguish sterile inflammation from infection which by itself causes inflammation. This allows timeous institution of the appropriate and effective antimicrobial therapy, effectively reducing the incidence of antimicrobial resistance. Current standard of care diagnostic tools such as inflammatory markers, culture, morphological imaging and molecular imaging tools has specific shortcomings which necessities enlist other tools to complement them. Various targets for infection imaging have been explored and demonstrated variable utilities in the preclinical or clinical settings. This review will discuss the relevant targets in bacteria, fungi and viruses and delve into the promising or novel molecular imaging tools.