eISSN: 2084-9869
ISSN: 1233-9687
Polish Journal of Pathology
Current issue Archive Manuscripts accepted About the journal Supplements Editorial board Abstracting and indexing Subscription Contact Instructions for authors Publication charge Ethical standards and procedures
Editorial System
Submit your Manuscript
SCImago Journal & Country Rank
4/2021
vol. 72
 
Share:
Share:
Short report

Endomyocardial biopsy: a 21st century diagnostic tool

Rosa A.M.H. Gouveia
1, 2, 3
,
Maria João Andrade
4
,
Carlos Aguiar
4
,
Sância Ramos
3

  1. Pathology and Histology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Madeira, Portugal
  2. Clinical and Anatomical Pathology Laboratory (LANA), Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
  3. Pathology, Hospital de Santa Cruz – CHLO, Lisboa, Portugal
  4. Cardiology, Hospital de Santa Cruz – CHLO, Lisboa, Portugal
Pol J Pathol 2021; 73 (4): 356-357
Online publish date: 2022/03/08
Article file
- 09-PJP-02350.pdf  [0.96 MB]
Get citation
 
PlumX metrics:
 
The question of the utility of Endomyocardial Biopsy (EMB) often and recurrently raises.
It is claimed that the image techniques provide identical results without the risks of an invasive procedure. It is a fact that the impressive technico-scientific development of cardiovascular imagological methodologies covers a broad spectrum of diagnosis. It is also a fact that endomyocardial biopsy is not completely risk-free. Yet, when performed by experienced professionals in reference centres, endomyocardial biopsies my disclose a final unexpected nosologic entity, confirm or exclude a proposed diagnosis and, even when not showing specific lesions in the examined samples, EMB may point to a multifocal involvement of the heart that eventually skipped the fragments collected [1, 2, 3].
Thus, it has a unique diagnostic value, as in post-cardiac transplant monitoring (Fig. 1A, B) [4, 5], myocarditis (Fig. 1C) [6, 7], cardiomyopathies, namely infiltrative (Fig. 1D-F) [8, 9], onco-cardiology (Fig. 1G, H) [10], among other pathological settings.
This letter aims to emphasize the up-to-date relevance of Endomyocardial Biopsy in the clinical cardiological workflow.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References

1. Veinot J. Endomyocardial Biopsy – when and how? Cardiovascular Pathology 2011; 20: 291-296.
2. Nguyen CT, Lee E, Luo H, et al. Echocardiographic guidance for diagnostic and therapeutic percutaneous procedures. Cardiovasc Diagn Ther 2011; 1: 11-36.
3. Gupta A, Aghdssi A. Endomyocardial Biopsy: Examining Indications and Trends in Use – More Native Heart Biopsy to Come? Cardiology 2019; 142: 102-104.
4. Nair V, Butany J. Heart transplant biopsies: interpretation and significance. J Clin Pathol 2010; 63: 12-20.
5. Gouveia RH, Vitorino E, Ramos S et al. C4d – The Witness of Humoral Rejection. Transplantation Proceedings 2009; 41: 866-867.
6. Moonen M, Lancellotti P. La Myocardite. Rev Med Liège 2018; 73: 269-276.
7. Zhou Z, Lopez H, Pérez G, et al. Toxoplasmosis and the Heart. Curr Probl Cardiol 2021; 46: 100741.
8. Ash S, Shorer E, Ramgobin D, et al. Cardiac amyloidosis –
9. A review of current literature for the practicing physician. Clin Cardiol 2021; 44: 322-331.
10. Yamamoto H, Yockochi T. Transtherytin cardiac amyloidosis: an update on diagnosis and treatment. ESC Heart Failure 2019; 6: 1128-1139.
11. Martino A, Re F, Barzaghi C et al. Occult primary cardiac lymphomas causing unexpected/sudden death or acute heart failure. Virchows Arch 2020; 477: 603-607.
Copyright: © 2022 Polish Association of Pathologists and the Polish Branch of the International Academy of Pathology This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
Quick links
© 2024 Termedia Sp. z o.o.
Developed by Bentus.