TITLE:
Cardiac Amyloidosis: The Role of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
AUTHORS:
Linda Sim, Christopher Semsarian, David Celermajer, Rajesh Puranik
KEYWORDS:
Cardiac Amyloidosis; Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (CMR); Transthoracic Echocardiography (TTE); Electrocardiography (ECG); Congestive Cardiac Failure (CCF)
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Clinical Diagnostics,
Vol.4 No.1,
March
13,
2014
ABSTRACT: Amyloidosis, an infiltrative disease characterized by deposition of high molecular weight insoluble protein has a low detection rate and poor prognosis with congestive heart failure being the most common cause of death. Although definitive diagnosis is based on endomyocardial biopsy, this is rarely performed due to procedural risk and sampling error. Traditional non-invasive imaging, such as transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) and electrocardiogram (ECG) lacks sensitivity detecting the disease in its early stages. This case report demonstrates the utility of cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging in addition to traditional imaging modalities in this often clinically challenging problem.