42 circuit hence connector 40 provides a detachable electrical and mechanical attachment to the drive unit not shown which rotates the imaging core 18 and to the signal processing electronics not shown the detachability feature allows the guidewire 10 to be quickly and easily disconnected so that catheters may be inserted over the guidewire 10 and then just as easily the guidewire 10 can be reconnected the imaging core 18 is slidably and rotatably received within the guidewire body 16 such that the imaging core 18 may be axially translated relative to the guidewire in this way the imaging device 42 can be axially translated along the imaging portion 26 of the guidewire body 16 thereby enabling imaging along an axial length of a region of tissue without moving the guidewire body 16 hence the proper positioning of the guidewire 10 within the patient 39 s body is maintained so that it may effectively serve as a guidewire for the insertion of catheters an alternative embodiment of an imaging guidewire 90 is shown in fig4 5 the imaging guidewire 90 is similar to and includes many of the features and elements as the imaging guidewire 10 described above throughout the description and figures like reference numerals refer to like elements and therefore some elements are not explicitly described for all figures the main differences of the.