TITLE:
Research Progress in Imaging of Cardiac Amyloidosis
AUTHORS:
Chengling Huang, Ming Wen
KEYWORDS:
Cardiac Amyloidosis, Echocardiography, CT, MR, Nuclear Medicine
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.13 No.7,
July
23,
2025
ABSTRACT: Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is a progressive disease characterized by extracellular deposition of misfolded proteins, leading to myocardial dysfunction and poor prognosis. Early and accurate diagnosis remains challenging due to nonspecific clinical presentations. This review highlights advancements in multimodality imaging for CA: echocardiography, as a noninvasive, accessible, and cost-effective initial screening tool, enhances diagnostic sensitivity through characteristic strain patterns (e.g., “apical sparing”); computed tomography (CT) quantifies amyloid burden via extracellular volume fraction (CT-ECV), particularly valuable for patients with contraindications to MRI; cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) excels in phenotyping and prognostic stratification using multiparametric techniques (e.g., late gadolinium enhancement and T1 mapping); and nuclear medicine (SPECT/PET) enables noninvasive subtyping and therapy monitoring through targeted tracers (e.g., ⁹⁹ᵐTc-PYP and ¹¹C-PiB). The integration of multimodal imaging significantly improves early diagnosis, subtype differentiation, and prognostic evaluation in CA, providing a foundation for personalized treatment strategies.