Compounds for the diagnosis of diseases associated with VCAM expression

The invention relates to a compound of the following general formula (I): Signal-Link-Peptide in which Signal is a signal entity, Link is present or absent and is a chemical bond, and Peptide is a peptide including a VCAM targeting peptide, the VCAM targeting peptide being selected from peptides of the following formula and the functional equivalents thereof: a) X1-X2-X3-X4-X5-X6-X7-X8-X9 (1) (SEQ ID NoI) where X1 is absent or present and is selected from cysteine, methionine, X2 is selected from aspargine or glutamine, X3 is selected from aspargine or glutamine, X4 is selected from serine, threonine, X5 is selected from lysine, arginine, histidine, ornithine, X6 is selected from serine, threonine, X7 is selected from histidine, arginine, lysine, X8 is selected from threonine, serine, X9 is absent or present and is selected from cysteine, methionine; preferably the peptide peptide NNSKSHT (SEQ ID No3) b) X10-X11-X12-X13-X14-X15-X16-X17-X18 (2) (SEQ ID No4) wherein X10 is selected from cysteine, methionine, X11 is selected from methionine, cysteine, X12 is selected lysine, arginine, alanine, X13 is selected from threonine, serine, X14 is selected from is selected aspartic acid, glutamic acid, X15 is selected from threonine, serine, X16 is selected from arginine, alanine, lysine, X17 is selected from leucine, isoleucine, valine, X18 is selected from cysteine, methionine; preferably the peptide CMKTDTRLC (SEQ ID No5); and the pharmaceutically acceptable salts of the compounds a) or b).