Application of nuclear medical imaging in the diagnosis of myocardial amyloidosis

Amyloidosis is a disease caused by abnormal deposition of amyloid protein, and the main types of amyloidosis involving myocardium are light chain amyloidosis (AL) and transthyretin-related amyloidosis (ATTR). Different types of myocardial amyloidosis have different prognosis and treatment methods. Therefore, early diagnosis and classification are particularly important. Nuclear medical imaging can diagnose and classify myocardial amyloidosis noninvasively. Radiotracers for bone scintigraphy has high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of ATTR, and have certain value for prognosis. Sympathetic innervation imaging tracers can detect cardiac sympathetic innervation, which may show myocardial involvement of amyloidosis earlier than bone scintigraphy. Amyloid protein specific imaging agent, which was first used in the diagnosis of amyloidosis in nervous system, has also yielded good results from preliminary studies in myocardial amyloidosis, and the diagnostic specificity in AL is slightly better than that in ATTR. This review introduces the application of nuclear medical imaging in myocardial amyloidosis. Key words: Amyloidosis; Myocardium; Radionuclide imaging; Positron-emission tomography; 3-idobenzylguanidine; Amyloid; Trends