Cardiac Amyloidosis - Cardiac MRI

Abnormal T1 kinetics in a patient with cardiac amyloidosis. The myocardium is completely dark in the second frame in the first row, where the inversion time is only 184 ms. This is an abnormal pattern due to diffuse infiltration of myocardium with amyloid and consequent abnormally rapid Gad uptake with T1 shortening. Note that unlike in a normal person, the blood pool is nulled later in time – on the last frame in the first row – when the inversion time is 255 ms. On later images, the signal intensity of both the blood pool and myocardium increase, and there is loss of contrast between the 2 tissues.