Barts launches DPD scintigraphy service

Dr Leon Menezes, Dr Neil Hartman, Professor James Moon, Andreia dos Santos, Elizabeth Morris and Dr Paul Scully.

The current gold standard of diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis is with an endomyocardial biopsy.  DPD scintigraphy has recently found a new role as a non-invasive means of diagnosing cardiac ATTR, with excellent sensitivity, but is not yet widely available in this role.  Between 40-50 per cent of patients with cardiac AL amyloidosis will also have a positive DPD scan.

In January 2016 Dr Leon Menezes, as the nuclear cardiology lead and in response to clinical demand from Professor Perry Elliot and the cardiomyopathy team, established the service at Barts Heart Centre to aid in the diagnosis and work-up of patients with suspected cardiac amyloidosis.  Barts Heart Centre is the largest cardiac centre in Europe and has performed nearly 100 DPD scans to date.

A DPD scan consists of whole body planar images at five minutes and three hours, followed by SPECT/CT of the heart.  Any cardiac uptake at three hours is abnormal.

Working with Professor James Moon and Professor Philip Hawkins, Barts Heart Centre has been awarded a British Heart Foundation Clinical Research Training Fellowship to investigate the role of DPD scintigraphy and occult cardiac amyloidosis in the elderly with severe aortic stenosis.

See the full report on page 9 of the February 2017 issue of RAD Magazine.