Recent advances in medical imaging: anatomical and clinical applications

The aim of this paper was to present an overview of the most important recent advances in medical imaging and their potential clinical and anatomical applications. Dramatic changes have been particularly observed in the field of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Computed tomography (CT) has been completely overturned by the successive development of helical acquisition, multidetector and large area-detector acquisition. Visualising brain function has become a new challenge for MRI, which is called functional MRI, currently based principally on blood oxygenation level-dependent sequences, which could be completed or replaced by other techniques such as diffusion MRI (DWI). Based on molecular diffusion due to the thermal energy of free water, DWI offers a spectrum of anatomical and clinical applications, ranging from brain ischemia to visualisation of large fibrous structures of the human body such as the anatomical bundles of white matter with diffusion tensor imaging and tractography. In the field of X-ray projection imaging, a new low-dose device called EOS has been developed through new highly sensitive detectors of X-rays, allowing for acquiring frontal and lateral images simultaneously. Other improvements have been briefly mentioned. Technical principles have been considered in order to understand what is most useful in clinical practice as well as in the field of anatomical applications. Nuclear medicine has not been included.