Cardiac amyloidosis is associated with increased aortic stiffness.

OBJECTIVE: Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is as an infiltrative disorder primarily caused by extracellular tissue deposition of amyloid fibrils in the myocardial interstitium. The current study was designed to test whether alterations in ascending aortic elastic properties could be detected by echocardiography in CA patients, and to compare their results to controls. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included 19 CA patients from which CA proved to be AL amyloidosis in 17 cases and transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis in 2 cases. Their results were compared to 20 age-, gender-, and risk factor-matched controls. RESULTS: There was significantly greater interventricular septum and left ventricular (LV) posterior wall thickness, lower LV ejection fraction and greater E/A in CA patients than in controls, suggesting systolic, and diastolic dysfunction. CA patients also showed significantly reduced aortic strain and pulsatile change in aortic diameter, and increased aortic stiffness index. CONCLUSION: These results suggest increased aortic stiffness in CA patients.