World heart federation consensus on Transthyretin Amyloidosis Cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM)

Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) is a progressive and fatal condition that requires early diagnosis, management, and specific treatment. The availability of new disease-modifying therapies has made successful treatment a reality. Transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy can be either age-related (wild-type form) or caused by mutations in the TTR gene (genetic, hereditary forms). It is a systemic disease, and while the genetic forms may exhibit a variety of symptoms, a predominant cardiac phenotype is often present. This document aims to provide an overview of ATTR-CM amyloidosis focusing on cardiac involvement, which is the most critical factor for prognosis. It will discuss the available tools for early diagnosis and patient management, given that specific treatments are more effective in the early stages of the disease, and will highlight the importance of a multidisciplinary approach and of specialized amyloidosis centres. To accomplish these goals, the World Heart Federation assembled a panel of 18 expert clinicians specialized in TTR amyloidosis from 13 countries, along with a representative from the Amyloidosis Alliance, a patient advocacy group. This document is based on a review of published literature, expert opinions, registries data, patients' perspectives, treatment options, and ongoing developments, as well as the progress made possible via the existence of centres of excellence. From the patients' perspective, increasing disease awareness is crucial to achieving an early and accurate diagnosis. Patients also seek to receive care at specialized amyloidosis centres and be fully informed about their treatment and prognosis.

Time delays in the diagnosis and treatment of Fabry disease.

BACKGROUND: The high variability in clinical manifestations of Fabry disease can lead to delays between symptom onset and correct diagnosis, and between correct diagnosis and initiation of enzyme replacement therapy. We investigated whether these delays have improved in recent years. METHODS: Data were analysed from the Fabry Outcome Survey (FOS; Shire; extracted August 2013) for "index patients", defined as the first patient diagnosed with Fabry disease from a family with several or no additional members registered in FOS. RESULTS: Periods analysed: 2001-2006 vs. 2007-2013, in patients overall and from Europe vs. the rest of the world (ROW). Overall, 598 patients were diagnosed within the study periods. Median age (95% CI) at symptom onset in 2001-2006 and 2007-2013 was 7.0 (5.0-11.0) and 9.0 (6.0-11.0) in children, and 21.0 (15.0-28.0) and 31.0 (26.0-35.0) in adults, respectively. Overall, the delay in diagnosis did not improve, despite showing a trend towards earlier diagnosis in adults (median 14.0 [95% CI 9.0-20.0] vs. 10.5 [8.0-13.0] years) and children (5.0 [1.0-9.0] vs. 4.0 [0.0-8.0] years). In contrast, the delay in treatment onset significantly decreased from 2001-2006 to 2007-2013 in children (4.3 [2.0-7.0] vs. 1.0 [0.8-1.4] year; P<.001) and adults (2.1 [1.3-3.2] vs. 0.9 [0.8-1.1] years; P<.001). Geographically, the delay in treatment onset significantly decreased in the ROW among children (5.3 [4.2-8.0] vs. 1.0 [0.8-1.4] year; P<.001) and adults (5.4 [4.8-6.0] vs. 1.1 [0.9-1.1] years; P<.001), but it did not change in Europe. CONCLUSION: We found that the delay in diagnosis has not improved substantially whereas the delay in treatment onset has improved in recent years.

Amiloidosis cardiaca por transtiretina: la gammagrafía mostró el camino / Transthyretin amyloidosis: Scintigraphy showing the way

Fundamento y objetivo: La amiloidosis cardiaca es una enfermedad grave producida por el depósito extracelular a nivel cardiaco de diversas sustancias que se identifican con el análisis de una biopsia endomiocárdica, técnica invasiva, poco accesible y de difícil interpretación. Debido a que las diversas entidades suponen diferente evolución, tratamiento y pronóstico, tiene gran relevancia clínica conocer el subtipo de esta patología. El objetivo es presentar diferentes técnicas diagnósticas no invasivas que nos puedan orientar a sospechar la amiloidosis por transtiretina. Método: Con este caso clínico reflejamos tanto la dificultad para llegar al diagnóstico del subtipo de amiloidosis como la utilidad de las pruebas radiológicas, la gammagrafía y la cardiorresonancia, en el diagnóstico diferencial de amiloidosis cardiaca. Resultados: El intenso depósito cardiaco de forma biventricular en la gammagrafía cardiaca con 99mTc-DPD como el realce tardío biventricular circunferencial en la cardiorresonancia son herramientas muy útiles para orientar hacia el diagnóstico de la amiloidosis por transtiretina.

Background and objetive: Cardiac amyloidosis is a very severe disease caused by extracellular deposition of insoluble fibrils. The gold standard for diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis is an endomyocardial biopsy. This technique is invasive, limited to experienced centers, and thus not widely available. It is required to perform special techniques to precisely determine the amyloid type as the treatment, evolution and prognosis of the disease differs greatly according the type of amyloid present. Method: In this case report we want to present the difficulties for diagnosing the types of amyloid involved in cardiac amyloidosis as well as the usefulness of cardiac MRI for diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis, particularly when performed with the use of the gadolinium as an imaging agent. Results: Biventricular, concentric late gadolinium enhancement on cardiac magnetic resonance and on technetium pyrophosphate scan (99mTc-DPD) showed to be helpful in the diagnosis of senile cardiac amyloidosis transthyrenin variant.