Imaging in Cardiac Sarcoidosis: Complementary Role of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance and Cardiac Positron Emission Tomography

AbstractPurpose of ReviewThe purpose of this paper is to review the current role and future directions for cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and positron emission tomography (PET) in cardiac sarcoidosis (CS).Recent FindingsDue to their excellent capability to characterize myocardial inflammation and/or injury, advanced imaging techniques including CMR and PET have developed important and complementary roles in the diagnosis, prognostication, and monitoring of response to therapies in CS.SummaryCS is a multisystem granulomatous disorder in which the body ’s immune system mounts an inflammatory response within the myocardium, resulting in heart failure, dysrhythmias, and sudden death. CS is a complex disease with varying clinical presentations and an often relapsing clinical course. For these reasons, a tailored, multimodality cardiac imaging appro ach is necessary in order to accurately evaluate CS in its various disease stages. Through the accurate assessment of ventricular structure and function as well as late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), CMR provides robust prognostic data which can help to establish a diagnosis of CS and guide decision- making regarding implantation of a cardiac defibrillator. Cardiac PET is the gold standard noninvasive technique for the assessment of myocardial inflammation and is therefore the ideal technique for guiding the initiation of and monitoring response to immunosuppressive therapy in CS. Accordingly, i n this targeted review, we highlight t...
Source: Current Cardiovascular Imaging Reports - Category: Radiology Source Type: research