Background: Inflammation is a share process in atherosclerosis and stroke and is thought to be a key player in the evolution of these diseases. Ten years ago, inflammation imaging with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was considered very promising for both pre-clinical and clinical studies of atherosclerosis and stroke. Contribution: We report here contributions to the field of inflammation imaging with USPIO-enhanced MRI. The goal was to investigate the life cycle of USPIOs in the body, and how the MRI signal has been impacted during their bio-interactions and bioprocessing. Those mechanisms were applied to pre-clinical longitudinal studies of inflammation in atherosclerosis and at the acute stage of ischemic stroke thus allowing the monitoring of treatment effects. Conclusion: This review presents the contribution of the collaborative research project under the "TecSan" grant from the French Research Agency (ANR) as well as pre-clinical and clinical perspectives of USPIO's inflammation MRI in atherosclerosis and stroke. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS on behalf of AGBM.