Improving care for patients with cardiac amyloidosis has emerged as one of the hottest topics in cardiology. Pfizer helped kickstart that trend in 2019 when it gained FDA approval for two separate medications for the rare, but potentially fatal disease. 

The announcement came just weeks after an FDA subcommittee voted in favor of approval. 

ASNC President President Mouaz Al-Mallah, MD, said nuclear cardiology needs to upgrade old imaging systems and embrace new technology to deliver better value for patients. 

Purvi Parwani, MD, discussed the trend toward multimodality imaging for heart failure management. All modalities have their own weaknesses, she explained. 

Advanced cardiac imager Roosha Parikh, MD, explained that cardiac amyloidosis is regularly misdiagnosed. It can often be identified in echocardiography results, however, if physicians know how to identify it. 

American Society of Echocardiography President Stephen Little, MD, says several trends and technologies are coming together at once, leading to renewed interest in echo.

Echocardiography expert Roberto Lang, MD, says artificial intelligence will be so important to cardiac ultrasound in the near future that echo labs not using it will be inefficient and less accurate than labs that do use it.

Anumana, Pfizer and Mayo Clinic all worked together to develop the advanced algorithm. The groups are now targeting full regulatory approval in the U.S., Europe and Japan.