Speckle Tracking as an Adjunctive Echocardiographic Technique for Differentiating Cardiac Amyloidosis from Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: A Case Study

Abstract

Cardiac Amyloidosis (CA) often requires multiple diagnostic modalities with echocardiogram being the most important non-invasive method. Echocardiographic findings of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), impaired relaxation and dilated atrias can be seen in others forms of LVH like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE), is a relatively new advancement in echocardiography which makes it possible to assess the deformation of the left ventricle and can be utilized for differentiating CA from other forms of LVH. We demonstrate the incremental value provided by STE in distinguishing CA from HCM.