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Recent Advances in Cardiovascular Imaging Relevant to the Management of Patients with Suspected Cardiac Amyloidosis

  • Myocardial Disease (M Patel, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Cardiac amyloidosis is a form of infiltrative cardiomyopathy typically presenting with progressive heart failure. The clinical presentation and morphological findings often overlap with other cardiovascular diseases, and frequently results in misdiagnosis and consequent under-reporting. Cardiovascular imaging is playing an increasingly important diagnostic and prognostic role in this referral population, and is reducing the reliance on endomyocardial biopsy as a confirmatory testing. Advancements across multiple cardiac imaging modalities, including echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear imaging, and computed tomography, are improving diagnostic accuracy and offering novel approaches to sub-type differentiation and prognostication. This review explores recent advancements in cardiac imaging for the diagnosis, typing, and staging of cardiac amyloidosis, with a focus on new and evolving techniques. Emphasis is also placed on the promise of non-invasive cardiac imaging to provide value across the spectrum of this clinical disease, from early disease identification (prior to the development of increased wall thickness) through to markers of advanced disease associated with early mortality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stephenson Cardiovascular Imaging Center, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    James A. White

  2. Division of Cardiology, Department of Cardiac Sciences, Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, Cummings School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    James A. White & Nowell M. Fine

  3. Stephenson Cardiovascular Imaging Center, Foothills Medical Centre Suite #0700, SSB, 1403-29 Street NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 2T9, Canada

    James A. White

  4. South Health Campus, 4448 Front Street SE, Calgary, Alberta, T3M 1M4, Canada

    Nowell M. Fine

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Correspondence to James A. White.

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James A. White reports grants and personal fees from Medtronic Inc. and is Chief Medical Officer of Systolik Inc.

Nowell M. Fine declares that he has no conflict of interest related to this publication.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Myocardial Disease

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White, J.A., Fine, N.M. Recent Advances in Cardiovascular Imaging Relevant to the Management of Patients with Suspected Cardiac Amyloidosis. Curr Cardiol Rep 18, 77 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-016-0752-7

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