Nuclear Cardiology

Mitochondrial dysfunction in heart failure. Lessons from a hereditary mitochondrial disease

The voyage: Amalgating a social media platform through the annual scientific meeting Abstract Social media platforms are increasingly used by professional societies for improved member engagement, to raise awareness, for advocacy and for widespread dissemination of scientific meeting highlights. This article describes the inaugural social media campaign implemented at the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) 2019 Scientific Meeting. Campaign strategies, including development of an interactive social media curriculum, dedicated social media ambassadors and implementation and announcement of a Tweetup, are described in detail. These efforts resulted in significantly uplifting the profile of the conference, improving attendee engagement, reinforced conference highlights, and expanded meeting reach across the world. This manuscript provides a blueprint for other professional societies considering the launch of a Social Media campaign at their scientific meetings.

Myocardial revascularization driven by functional testing and PET imaging

Cardiovascular disease in the literature: A selection of recent original research papers

Identification and typing of cardiac amyloidosis by noninvasive imaging: Two cases for two patterns Abstract Cardiac amyloidosis is a restrictive infiltrative cardiomyopathy burdened by high mortality. The two more common forms are immunoglobulin light-chain amyloidosis and transthyretin-related amyloidosis with different prognoses and treatments. However, distinguishing between them is challenging. Appropriate utilization of the different available imaging techniques in the evaluation of patients with known or suspected cardiac amyloidosis is mandatory. We report two cases with cardiac amyloidosis of different etiology and with distinct imaging patterns. In the first case, the negative 99mTc-diphosphonate imaging was useful to support the diagnosis of cardiac amyloid light-chain; the second case emphasized the utility of whole-body scintigraphy in recognizing transthyretin-related cardiac amyloidosis and the potential role of cadmium-zinc-telluride SPECT imaging for the evaluation of segmental distribution of cardiac disease. Both cases support the growing interest in looking for noninvasive methods to type cardiac amyloidosis in the place of invasive myocardial biopsy highlighting both possibilities and limitations of available imaging techniques in diagnosis and treatment monitoring.

Using a sledgehammer to crack a nut: The burdensome appropriate use criteria program

Hiding beyond plain sight: Textural analysis of positron emission tomography to identify high-risk plaques in carotid atherosclerosis

Imaging cellular activity and proliferation in the aortic wall

Identifying the leukocyte uptake pattern of inflammation imaging agents: Current limitations and potential impact

18 F-FMISO PET/CT detects hypoxic lesions of cardiac and extra-cardiac involvement in patients with sarcoidosis Abstract Background 18F-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) is a hypoxia positron emission tomography (PET) tracer. Here, we evaluated cardiac and extra-cardiac sarcoidosis using both FMISO and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT in a prospective cohort of patients with sarcoidosis. Methods Ten consecutive sarcoidosis patients with suspected cardiac involvement were prospectively enrolled. Each patient fasted overnight (for ≥ 18 hours) preceded by a low-carbohydrate diet before FDG PET/CT but not given special dietary instructions before the FMISO PET/CT scan. We visually and semiquantitatively assessed the uptakes of FMISO and FDG using the maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax). The metabolic volume (MV) of FDG was calculated as the volume within the boundary determined by the threshold (mean SUV of blood pool × 1.5). Results Nine patients showed focal FDG uptake in the myocardium and were diagnosed with cardiac sarcoidosis. Among the patients with extra-cardiac lesions, FDG uptake was seen in 8 lymph nodes and 3 lung lesions. FMISO uptake was seen in the 7 cardiac (77.8%) and 6 extra-cardiac (54.5%) lesions. None of the patients showed physiological FMISO uptake in the myocardium. The SUVmax values of the lesions with FMISO uptake were higher than those of the lesions without FMISO uptake in both the cardiac (SUVmax: 9.9, IQR: 8.4-10.0 vs 7.3, IQR: 6.3-8.2) and non-cardiac lesions (SUVmax: 17.6, IQR: 14.5-19.3 vs 6.1, IQR: 5.9-6.2; P = 0.006). The MV values of the lesions with FMISO uptake were significantly higher than those of the lesions without FMISO uptake (111.3, IQR: 78.3-135.7 vs 6.4, IQR: 1.9-23.3; P = 0.0009). Conclusions FMISO showed no physiological myocardial uptake and did not require special preparation. FMISO PET has the potential to detect hypoxic lesions in patients with sarcoidosis.