A DPD scan is a type of

nuclear medicine Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging, in a sense, is " radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emi ...

imaging test which uses radioactive

technetium-99m Technetium-99m (99mTc) is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium), symbolized as 99mTc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used medical ra ...

(^99mTc) and 3,3-diphosphono-1,2-propanodicarboxylic acid (DPD) to diagnose cardiac amyloidosis. The

radiopharmaceutical Radiopharmaceuticals, or medicinal radiocompounds, are a group of pharmaceutical drugs containing radioactive isotopes. Radiopharmaceuticals can be used as diagnostic and therapeutic agents. Radiopharmaceuticals emit radiation themselves, which ...

is taken up only in patients with ATTR amyloidosis, making it a useful tool to differentiate from

AL amyloidosis Amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, also known as primary amyloidosis, is the most common form of systemic amyloidosis in the US. The disease is caused when a person's antibody-producing cells do not function properly and produce abnormal protein ...

. DPD is a

diphosphonate Bisphosphonates are a class of drugs that prevent the loss of bone density, used to treat osteoporosis and similar diseases. They are the most commonly prescribed drugs used to treat osteoporosis. They are called bisphosphonates because they ...

and can be used as an alternative to HDP or MDP in nuclear medicine bone scintigraphy.

Procedure

DPD scanning typically uses a

gamma camera A gamma camera (γ-camera), also called a scintillation camera or Anger camera, is a device used to image gamma radiation emitting radioisotopes, a technique known as scintigraphy. The applications of scintigraphy include early drug development ...

to obtain

SPECT Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT, or less commonly, SPET) is a nuclear medicine tomographic imaging technique using gamma rays. It is very similar to conventional nuclear medicine planar imaging using a gamma camera (that is, ...

images, with an injection followed by an initial scan after 5 minutes, and a second scan after 3 hours. Images are often scored using the "Perugini system" whereby: * Grade 0 – no cardiac uptake and normal bone uptake * Grade 1 – cardiac uptake which is less intense than the bone signal * Grade 2 – cardiac uptake with intensity similar or greater than bone signal * Grade 3 – cardiac uptake with much attenuated or absent bone signal

Availability

DPD is not currently available in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

References

{{reflist Nuclear medicine procedures Amyloidosis

Procedure

Availability

See also

References