Echocardiographic evaluation of cardiac amyloid.

Cardiac involvement in amyloidosis has poor prognosis and its diagnosis is challenging because of its patchy, infiltrative nature. Echocardiography plays an important role in the diagnosis, management, and prognosis in this disease process. In this article, we briefly review the utility and problems associated with traditional echocardiographic techniques and discuss the role for new echocardiographic imaging modalities such as tissue Doppler, Doppler-based strain, speckle tracking imaging, and three-dimensional imaging in the assessment of cardiac amyloid.