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editorial
. 2021 Nov 2;206(3):248–250. doi: 10.1111/cei.13670

TABLE 1.

Types of imaging approaches

Imaging modality Principal Comments
Positron emission tomography (PET) Uses radiolabelled ligand that binds to selected target, e.g. translocator protein (TSPO) and F‐FIMP an L‐type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1)‐specific PET probe TSPO was widely considered to represent pathogenic proinflammatory microglia, but more recent studies report that TSPO PET rather represents microglial density in the brain
F‐FIMP is an L‐type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1)‐specific PET probe that allows better differentiation between tumour tissue and inflammation
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

  1. Voxel‐based morphometry

  2. Diffusion tensor imaging

  3. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy

  4. Susceptibility weighted imaging

  5. Functional MRI

 In general, these approaches
determine the extent of axonal injuries across different axonal tracts
More specifically, they can determine the levels of increased iron accumulation in microglia and astrocytes
Biological fluids [e.g. blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), urine] Various methods, e.g. proteomics, can identify changes in immune markers as well as levels of central nervous system (CNS) proteins, e.g. neurofilament (Nf) light Many do not fully distinguish different neurological diseases