Varying levels of small microcalcifications and macrophages in ATTR and AL cardiac amyloidosis: implications for utilizing nuclear medicine studies to subtype amyloidosis

摘要

Background: Recently, there has been much interest in using nuclear medicine studies to noninvasively identify and subtype cardiac amyloidosis. In particular, modified bone scans using Tc-99m-3,3-diphosphono-1,2-propanodicarboxylic acid (Tc-99m-DPD) and Tc-99m-pyrophosphate (Tc-99m-PYP) are being used to selectively identify patients with ATTR amyloidosis rather than AL amyloidosis. The morphologic basis underlying the selectivity of these imaging modalities for ATTR amyloidosis has been unclear.