A nuclear heart scan has made it far easier to diagnose transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis, or ATTR-CM, a disease that stiffens the heart and that doctors can now treat with several approved drugs. But the same scan has a blind spot. In a large referral-center study cited by imaging experts, only about 71% of patients with the disease had a clearly positive result.
That gap came into focus in a recent case published in JACC: Case Reports. A 74-year-old man with heart failure had been told his scan for amyloidosis was negative. A cardiac MRI later showed an unusual ring of thickened muscle at the base of his heart, and a repeat scan confirmed the disease after all.
