C. Fournier et al., TC-99M CARDIAC SCINTIGRAPHY IN AMYLOIDOSI S - CORRELATIONS WITH DOPPLER-ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY, Archives des maladies du coeur et des vaisseaux, 86(7), 1993, pp. 1009-1015
Technetium 99m cardiac scintigraphy as practiced at present for diagno
sing amyloisodid only provides a visual semi-quantitative assessment o
f uptake of the isotope. To improve the diagnostic accuracy of the met
hod, the authors evaluated prospectively a personal technique of scint
igraphy quantification based on early images obtained at the 20th minu
te in 15 patients with neuropathic amyloidosis. Doppler echocardiograp
hic studies indicated that 9 patients had cardiac involvement whilst 6
were free of cardiac amyloidosis. The index of isotopic uptake (ratio
of cardiac/abdominal uptake) was 0.44 to 1.58 in the first group and
0.09 to 0.31 in the second group. The correlation between the scintigr
aphic index and interventricular septal or posterior wall thickness me
asured by echocardiography was poor. These results obtained in 15 pati
ents with neuropathic amyloidosis suggest that the scintigraphic index
measured at the 20th minute is discriminatory and allows identificati
on of those patients with cardiac involvement. On the other hand, the
correlations with echocardiographic wall thickness are poor. Technetiu
m 99m cardiac scintigraphy with this technique of quantification is a
useful tool for diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis, especially when echoca
rdiography is difficult to interpret.