The scintigraphic diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis. An expert opinion endorsed by the Section of Nuclear Medicine of the Polish Cardiac Society and the Polish Nuclear Medicine Society

Abstract

Amyloid transthyretin cardiomyopathy is a progressive disease that confers significant mortality. While it is relatively rare, the frequency of diagnoses has risen with the increased contribution of novel diagnostic approach over the last decade. Traditionally tissue biopsy was considered to be a gold standard for amyloidosis diagnosis. However, there are significant limitations in the wide application of this approach. A noninvasive imaging-based diagnostic algorithm has been substantially developed in recent years. Establishing radionuclide imaging standards may translate into a further enhancement of disease detection and improving prognosis in the group of patients. Therefore we present in the following document current evidence on the scintigraphic diagnosis of cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis. Moreover, we present standardized protocol for the acquisition and interpretation criteria in the scintigraphic evaluation of cardiac amyloidosis.