Current State and Future Directions of Multimodality Imaging in Cardiac Sarcoidosis

Abstract

Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) is an increasingly recognized cause of heart failure and arrhythmia. Historically challenging to identify, particularly in the absence of extracardiac sarcoidosis, diagnosis of CS has improved with advancements in cardiac imaging. Recognition as well as management may require interpretation of multiple imaging modalities. Echocardiography may serve as an initial screening study for cardiac involvement in patients with systemic sarcoidosis. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) provides information on diagnosis as well as risk stratification, particularly for ventricular arrhythmia in the setting of late gadolinium enhancement. More recently, ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose position emission tomography (FDG-PET) has assumed a valuable role in the diagnosis and longitudinal management of patients with CS, allowing for the assessment of response to treatment. Hybrid FDG-PET/CT may also be used in the evaluation of extracardiac inflammation, permitting the identification of biopsy sites for diagnostic confirmation. Herein we examine the approach to diagnosis and management of CS using multimodality imaging via a case-based review.

Keywords: cardiac MRI (CMR); cardiac PET; cardiac sarcoidosis; echocardiography; inflammatory cardiomyopathy; multimodality imaging; sarcoid cardiomyopathy.