Cardiac amyloidosis. Contribution of imaging to its diagnosis

Abstract

Restrictive pathologies are a group of diseases of low prevalence. Cardiac amyloidosis is considered to be the prototype of the infiltrative form of restrictive cardiomyopathies. Myocardial involvement is frequent, even as the first expression of the disease. Pleural involvement is less frequent; its presence determines worse prognosis than isolated cardiac presentations. The main problem that concerns these pathologies is their late recognition and the consequences that this implies in patient evolution. Actually, cardiac imaging tools can facilitate diagnosis, and faster disease detection. We share an unusual case of amyloidosis with pleural involvement, where the results of echocardiogram and cardiac magnetic resonance images allowed an accurate diagnostic.