ABSTRACT

Sarcoidosis and amyloidosis can affect many organs, including the heart. The diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis and amyloidosis is very important because the prognosis of the patient depends on cardiac involvement and early treatment. Radionuclide molecular imaging plays an important role in the evaluation of these patients. Advances in noninvasive imaging methods have reduced the need for endomyocardial biopsy in patients with sarcoidosis and amyloidosis. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of cardiac sarcoidosis improve the prognosis of patients. F-18 fludeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis is useful in diagnosis, prediction of risk and prognosis, choice of treatment, and in monitoring the response to treatment. PET imaging with somatostatin analogues in cardiac sarcoidosis shows promising results. Identification of myocardial involvement in amyloidosis and discrimination of amyloid subtypes is the most important step. Bone scintigraphy and PET imaging with amyloid-specific tracers may be an appropriate choice to identify cardiac amyloidosis and differentiate subtypes. In this review, radionuclide molecular imaging in cardiac sarcoidosis and cardiac amyloidosis is described.