Scintigraphy for transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis diagnosis in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland from 2021 to 2024. A survey report

PURPOSE: Bone scintigraphy using technetium-99 m-labelled phosphonates is increasingly applied for imaging of cardiac transthyretin (ATTR) amyloidosis. However, there is limited data on how frequently this technique is used. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To address this issue, we added questions about the number of patients referred for nuclear medicine scanning for suspected cardiac amyloidosis and the proportion of positive results (Perugini score of 2 or 3) to the 2024 survey on myocardial perfusion imaging conducted jointly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. RESULTS: The number of participating institutions in Austria, Germany and Switzerland was 12, 170 and 16, respectively. The number of patients scanned for cardiac amyloidosis was 1487, 4029 and 824 with a positivity-rate of 41%, 37% and 49%. CONCLUSION: The survey data reveal an increasing diagnostic effort for cardiac amyloidosis from 2021 to 2024, with a similar trend observed in all three countries. The average positivity rate in 2024 was almost 40% vs. about 33% in 2021. The results from 2021 to 2024 across all participants demonstrate improved pre-selection by the referring physicians but also increased awareness and improved training among nuclear medicine physicians.