Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Apr 15;10(4):903.
doi: 10.3390/biomedicines10040903.

Advanced Imaging in Cardiac Amyloidosis

Affiliations
Review

Advanced Imaging in Cardiac Amyloidosis

Dominik Waldmeier et al. Biomedicines. .

Abstract

This review serves as a synopsis of multimodality imaging in cardiac amyloidosis (CA), which is a disease characterized by deposition of misfolded protein fragments in the heart. It emphasizes and summarizes the diagnostic possibilities and their prognostic values. In general, echocardiography is the first diagnostic tool in patients with an identified systemic disease or unclear left ventricular hypertrophy. Several echocardiographic parameters will raise suspicion and lead to further testing. Cardiac magnetic resonance and scintigraphy with bone avid radiotracers are crucial for diagnosis of CA and even enable a distinction between different subtypes. The subject is illuminated with established guidelines and innovative recent publications to further improve early diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis in light of current treatment options.

Keywords: CMR; PET; cardiac amyloidosis; cardiac scintigraphy; echocardiography.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Typical findings in transthoracic echocardiography: (a) Apical four-chamber view with left ventricular hypertrophy. (b) Echocardiographic strain imaging with ‘cherry-on-top’ sign.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Typical findings in cardiovascular magnetic resonance: (a) Cine image of a four-chamber view with left ventricular hypertrophy. (b) Late gadolinium enhancement of the left and right ventricular myocardium.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Typical findings in scintigraphy and single-photon emission computed tomography: (a) Anterior view of 99Tc-hydroxymethylene diphosphonate scintigraphy with myocardial uptake Perugini Grade 3. (b) Posterior view of the same study. (c) Left and right ventricular uptake of 99mTc-hydroxymethylene diphosphonate in single-photon emission computed tomography.

References

    1. Benson M.D., Buxbaum J.N., Eisenberg D.S., Merlini G., Saraiva M.J.M., Sekijima Y., Sipe J.D., Westermark P. Amyloid nomenclature 2020: Update and recommendations by the International Society of Amyloidosis (ISA) nomenclature committee. Amyloid. 2020;27:217–222. doi: 10.1080/13506129.2020.1835263. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Gertz M.A., Benson M.D., Dyck P.J., Grogan M., Coelho T., Cruz M., Berk J.L., Plante-Bordeneuve V., Schmidt H., Merlini G. Diagnosis, Prognosis and Therapy of Transthyretin Amyloidosis. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2015;66:2451–2466. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2015.09.075. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ash S., Shorer E., Bs D.R., Vo M., Bs J.G., Golamari R., Jain R., Jain R. Cardiac amyloidosis—A review of current literature for the practicing physician. Clin. Cardiol. 2021;44:322–331. doi: 10.1002/clc.23572. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sperry B.W., Vranian M.N., Hachamovitch R., Joshi H., Ikram A., Phelan D., Hanna M. Subtype-Specific Interactions and Prognosis in Cardiac Amyloidosis. J. Am. Heart Assoc. 2016;5:e002877. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.115.002877. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yilmaz A., Kindermann I., Kindermann M., Mahfoud F., Ukena C., Athanasiadis A., Hill S., Mahrholdt H., Voehringer M., Schieber M., et al. Comparative Evaluation of Left and Right Ventricular Endomyocardial Biopsy: Differences in Complication Rate and Diagnostic Performance. Circulation. 2010;122:900–909. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.924167. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources