Publicaties

This joint position paper illustrates the role and the correct use of echocardiography, radionuclide imaging with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography, radionuclide myocardial perfusion imaging and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging for the evaluation and management of patients with known or suspected cardiac sarcoidosis. This position paper will aid in standardizing imaging for cardiac sarcoidosis and may facilitate ...

Taking into account the complexity and limitations of clinical assessment in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), imaging techniques play an essential role in the evaluation of patients with this disease. Thus, in HCM patients, imaging provides solutions for most clinical needs, from diagnosis to prognosis and risk stratification, from anatomical and functional assessment to ischaemia detection, from metabolic evaluation to monitoring of treatment ...

The term 'athlete's heart' refers to a clinical picture characterized by a slow heart rate and enlargement of the heart. A multi-modality imaging approach to the athlete's heart aims to differentiate physiological changes due to intensive training in the athlete's heart from serious cardiac diseases with similar morphological features. Imaging assessment of the athlete's heart should begin with a thorough echocardiographic examination. Left ...

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem chronic inflammatory disease of unknown etiology characterized by widespread growth of non-caseating granulomas. The diagnosis of sarcoidosis is based on clinical and imaging presentation, histologic confirmation and the absence of alternative diseases. Radiology and Nuclear Medicine play an essential role in the diagnostic work-up of patients with sarcoidosis to assess disease extent and activity. In addition, ...

Background: Embolisation and metastatic infection occur frequently in infective endocarditis (IE). We aimed to evaluate the impact of nuclear imaging on diagnosis, therapy and mortality.Methods: All patients hospitalised for definite IE at the University Hospitals of Leuven in 2001 and in 2015 were retrospectively included. Demographic, clinical, diagnostic and outcome data were analysed by univariate statistical analysis.Results: Data of 122 ...

© 2017, Italian Association of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. Purpose: Cardiac amyloidosis is a rare and still underdiagnosed disease leading a poor prognosis. We reviewed the literature regarding non-invasive imaging of cardiac amyloidosis (i.e., echocardiography, magnetic resonance, and nuclear medicine imaging) with special attention to the clinical contribution of bone-seeking radiotracers. Methods: We performed a PubMed and Scopus ...

Radionuclide imaging of cardiac function represents a number of well-validated techniques for accurate determination of right (RV) and left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF) and LV volumes. These first European guidelines give recommendations for how and when to use first-pass and equilibrium radionuclide ventriculography, gated myocardial perfusion scintigraphy, gated PET, and studies with non-imaging devices for the evaluation of cardiac ...

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an established therapy for patients with advanced heart failure, depressed left ventricular function, and wide QRS complex. However, individual response varies, and a substantial amount of patients do not respond to CRT. Recent studies observed that assessment of inter- and particularly intraventricular dyssynchrony may allow identification of potential responders to CRT. In addition, presence of scar ...

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has become a therapeutic option for drug-refractory heart failure. Several noninvasive imaging techniques play an increasingly important role before and after device implantation. This review highlights the acute and long-term CRT benefits after implantation as assessed with echocardiography and nuclear imaging. Furthermore, optimization of CRT settings, in particular atrioventricular and interventricular ...