ABSTRACT
Optical imaging techniques for the assessment of tissue anatomy, physiology, and metabolic and molecular function have emerged as an essential tool for both the basic researcher and the clinical practitioner. One concern of clinical practitioners is that too much harmful radiation is used to detect diseased tissue. e attractiveness of optical imaging techniques arises from the fact that uorescent dyes can be detected at low concentrations and nonionizing, harmless radiation can be applied repeatedly to the patient. Furthermore, the remarkable progress in the development of optical instrumentation in the last two decades (laser excitation and detection systems) has decisively contributed to the growing applicability of optical imaging techniques, which have the advantage of being cheap, small in size, and, therefore, readily available to solve clinical problems. e design of contrast agents for optical in vivo imaging of diseased tissues has also emerged and is reected by an increasing number of publications in this area.1,2 Novel probes have been synthesized and characterized for their ability to monitor diseasespecic anatomical, physiological, and molecular parameters through their optical signals. e multifarious world of chromophores and uorophores provides various parameters that can be exploited for diagnostic measurement and detection.
