The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC), together with eight other nuclear medicine and cardiology societies, have published a consensus document outlining the best practices for imaging and diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis.
The statement—a joint effort from the ASNC, American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC), American Society of Echocardiography (ASE), European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA), International Society of Amyloidosis (ISA), Society of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR) and Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI)—was born from a need to update diagnostic criteria for cardiac amyloidosis, according to a release. Newer imaging methods have facilitated earlier diagnosis of the disease and improved treatments, but those advancements haven’t been reflected in the medical literature.
“For the first time, imaging experts conferred with heart failure experts and amyloidosis experts to provide guidance on standardized imaging techniques, diagnostic criteria and appropriate utilization of echocardiography, cardiac MRI and radionuclide imaging in cardiac amyloidosis,” writing chairs Sharmila Dorbala, MD, MPH, and Jamieson Bourque, MD, MHS, said in the release. “We anticipate that these expert multisocietal consensus recommendations on multimodality imaging in cardiac amyloidosis will standardize the diagnosis and improve the management of this highly morbid and underdiagnosed disease.”
Dorbala and Bourque chaired a team of 26 writers who worked to create the updated guidelines. Their aim was threefold:
- Achieve multisocietal consensus on standardized imaging methods and image acquisition, interpretation and reporting
- Develop consensus criteria for diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis through a combo of histopathology, laboratory and imaging features
- Define appropriate use of imaging in cardiac amyloidosis
The new document is split in two—”Evidence base and standardized methods of imaging” and “Diagnostic criteria and appropriate utilization.” Both parts can be found in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.