Diagnostic Accuracy of Bone Scintigraphy for the Histopathological Diagnosis of Cardiac Transthyretin Amyloidosis-A Retrospective Austrian Multicenter Study.

We aimed to ascertain the real-world diagnostic accuracy of bone scintigraphy in combination with free light chain (FLC) assessment for transthyretin (ATTR) cardiac amyloidosis (CA) using the histopathological diagnosis derived from endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) as a reference standard. We retrospectively analyzed 102 patients (22% women) with suspected CA from seven Austrian amyloidosis referral centers. The inclusion criteria comprised the available results of bone scintigraphy, FLC assessment, and EMB with histopathological analysis. ATTR and AL were diagnosed in 60 and 21 patients (59%, 21%), respectively, and concomitant AL and ATTR was identified in one patient. The specificity and positive predictive value (PPV) of Perugini score ≥ 2 for ATTR CA were 95% and 96%. AL was diagnosed in three out of 31 patients (10%) who had evidence of monoclonal proteins and a Perugini score ≥ 2. When excluding all patients with detectable monoclonal proteins (n = 62) from analyses, the PPV of Perugini score ≥ 2 for ATTR CA was 100% and the NPV of Perugini score < 2 for ATTR CA was 79%. Conclusively, ATTR CA can be diagnosed non-invasively in the case of a Perugini score ≥ 2 and an unremarkable FLC assessment. However, tissue biopsy is mandatory in suspected CA in any other constellation of non-invasive diagnostic work-up.

Incidence, management, and outcome in significant pulmonary vein stenosis complicating ablation for atrial fibrillation.

This study summarizes our results in diagnosing and treating pulmonary vein stenosis complicating ablation for atrial fibrillation in 6 of 92 patients. Patients with significant pulmonary vein narrowing underwent either dilatation or dilatation plus stenting. Pulmonary vein intervention produced a favorable clinical course over the following 7 +/- 2 months despite significant restenosis in 2 patients.