Heart failure & cardiomyopathiesResearch article
Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging May Detect Early Cardiac Amyloidosis in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
- Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (cDTI) was performed on 20 patients with carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) with confirmed tenosynovial amyloid, 20 patients with cardiac amyloidosis (CA), 20 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and 20 healthy controls
- electrocardiogram-gated, free-breathing, second-order, motion-compensated spin echo acquisition obtained in systole
Authors' conclusion
MD and FA were significantly different between healthy patients and those with CA or CTS, suggesting that cDTI may detect evidence of myocardial microstructural alterations consistent with possible early CA.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with CTS who underwent carpal tunnel release surgery and had confirmed amyloid deposition on tenosynovial biopsy, compared with patients with CA, patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and healthy controlsCTS with confirmed tenosynovial amyloid 20 · CA 20 · hypertrophic cardiomyopathy 20 · healthy controls 20
- Participants
- 20 / 20 / 20 / 20
- Comparison
- cDTI parameters in CTS, CA, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and healthy controls
- CTSn = 20
- CAn = 20
- hypertrophic cardiomyopathyn = 20
- healthy controlsn = 20
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Mean diffusivity (MD)
- CA vs CTS: 1.79 ± 0.16 vs 1.63 ± 0.09; P = 0.0016
- CTS vs healthy controls: 1.63 ± 0.09 vs 1.51 ± 0.10; P = 0.0016
Further findings
| Outcome | Estimate | P value |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional anisotropy (FA) — CA vs healthy controls · significantly reduced in CA | 0.25 ± 0.052 vs 0.31 ± 0.057 | P = 0.0044 |
| Fractional anisotropy (FA) — CTS vs healthy controls · significantly reduced in CTS | 0.24 ± 0.027 vs 0.31 ± 0.057 | P = 0.0004 |
Distinguishing healthy myocardium from CA and CTS
- cDTI outperformed T1 and T2 in distinguishing between healthy myocardium and those of the CA and CTS groups
Original publication
Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging May Detect Early Cardiac Amyloidosis in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. JACC Adv. Published 22 January 2026. doi:10.1016/j.jacadv.2025.102562
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it