Left Ventricular Myocardial Work to Differentiate Cardiac Amyloidosis From Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
Jan Stassen, Catherina Tjahjadi, Robert Adam, Philippe Debonnaire, Mathias Claeys, Bogdan A. Popescu, Ruxandra Jurcuţ, Victoria Delgado, Jeroen J. Bax, Nina Ajmone Marsan
Abstract
Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is a progressive disorder with a reported median survival of 2.5 to 3.5 years after diagnosis.1 Novel treatment options are emerging that could improve prognosis but seem most efficient when started at an early stage of the disease, underscoring the importance of early diagnosis. Echocardiography is the first-line imaging technique for the assessment of cardiac structure and function and might raise suspicion of CA. Although “relative apical sparing” of speckle-tracking-derived left ventricular (LV) longitudinal strain (LS) measurements was suggested to help diagnose CA,2 differentiating CA from other causes of LV hypertrophy remains difficult.