Cardiac amyloidosis: typical imaging findings and diffuse myocardial damage demonstrated by delayed contrast-enhanced MRI.
Amyloidosis is a rare systemic disease. However, involvement of the heart is a common finding and is the most frequent cause of death in amyloidosis. We report the sonographic, scintigraphic, and MRI features of a pathologically proven case of cardiac amyloidosis. Delayed contrast-enhanced MR images, using an inversion recovery prepped gradient-echo sequence, revealed diffuse enhancement in the wall of both left and right ventricles. This enhancement suggested expansion of the extracellular space of the myocardium caused by diffuse myocardial necrosis secondary to deposition of amyloid.
Department of Radiology, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan. EijunSueyoshi@aol.com
Eijun
E
Sueyoshi
Ichiro
I
Sakamoto
Tomoaki
T
Okimoto
Kuniaki
K
Hayashi
Kyouei
K
Tanaka
Genji
G
Toda
D000368:Aged; D000686:Amyloidosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D003287:Contrast Media; D004452:Echocardiography; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009336:Necrosis
D003287:Contrast Media