The Role of Echocardiography for the Clinical Diagnosis, Risk Stratification, and Management of Cardiac Amyloidosis

The widespread availability of imaging techniques, such as echocardiography, in routine care for patients with red flags for CMs has allowed a tremendous step forward toward a faster and easier diagnosis of CA. Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that RV involvement (eg, RV pulmonary arterial coupling) may be helpful for risk stratification and management of patients with CA. To this regard, echocardiographic scores developed including also clinical variables, showed the highest performance in phenotyping ventricular hypertrophy among phenocopies (eg, hypertensive heart disease vs aortic stenosis vs HCM). Although echocardiography may not be sufficient by itself to make the diagnosis of CA, it is an essential part of the diagnostic evaluation and ongoing management of patients with this disorder. For these reasons, the echocardiography laboratory is pivotal in bridging the gap between outpatient clinics and hospital wards. It plays a crucial role in screening patients, fostering early suspicion of CA, and guiding the diagnostic process.