Bone scintigraphy with (99m)technetium-hydroxymethylene diphosphonate allows early diagnosis of cardiac involvement in patients with transthyretin-derived systemic amyloidosis.

Objective: To assess the usefulness of bone scintigraphy with (99m)Technetium-hydroxymethylene diphosphonate ((99m)Tc-HDP) for the detection of cardiac involvement in a group of patients with ATTR amyloidosis in different phases of disease, to relate the findings to echocardiography, ECG and cardiac biomarkers, and to evaluate different bone scintigraphic techniques and calculation methods for quantification of the cardiac uptake and for correlation with echocardiographic features and cardiac biomarkers.

Methods: Forty-one patients underwent clinical examinations, echocardiography, ECG, measurement of cardiac biomarkers and bone scintigraphy (planar imaging and SPECT-CT) and were subsequently subdivided into three groups: (1) carriers of an amyloidogenic TTR mutation, n = 11, (2) proven ATTR amyloidosis without echocardiographically-defined (mean wall thickness >12 mm) cardiac amyloidosis (AC), n = 19, and (3) ATTR amyloidosis with echocardiographically-defined cardiac amyloidosis, n = 11. Planar and SPECT-CT images were analyzed visually according to a routine scoring system (grade 0-3) and semi-quantitatively by heart-to-whole body (H/WB) and heart-to-skull (H/S) ratio on planar images and by a left ventricle-blood pool ratio on SPECT-CT images.

Value of 11C-methionine PET in imaging brain tumours and metastases.

(11)C-methionine (MET) is the most popular amino acid tracer used in PET imaging of brain tumours. Because of its characteristics, MET PET provides a high detection rate of brain tumours and good lesion delineation. This review focuses on the role of MET PET in imaging cerebral gliomas.

(123)I-Labelled metaiodobenzylguanidine for the evaluation of cardiac sympathetic denervation in early stage amyloidosis.

Purpose: Cardiac amyloidosis is a rare disorder, but it may lead to potentially life-threatening restrictive cardiomyopathy. Cardiac manifestations frequently occur in primary amyloidosis (AL) and familial amyloidosis (ATTR), but are uncommon in secondary amyloidosis (AA). Echocardiography is the method of choice for assessing cardiac amyloidosis.