Prevalence of transthyretin-related amyloidosis in Tuscany: Data from the regional population-based registry.

The limited available data regarding the prevalence of transthyretin amyloidosis, both for wild-type (ATTRwt) and hereditary form (ATTRv), is inferred from highly selected patients and subsequent extrapolations that limit the comprehension of the clinical disease impact. The Tuscan healthcare system in 2006 developed a web-based rare disease registry, to monitor and profile patients affected by rare diseases. Clinicians belonging to regional validated healthcare data centres can register patients at the diagnosis, with a rigorous approach and distinguishing the types of amyloidosis, i.e., ATTRwt versus ATTRv. Thanks to this data collection method, available from July 2006 and extended with electronic therapy plans related to a diagnosis since May 2017, we analysed prevalence and incidence of ATTR and its subtypes. On November 30th 2022, ATTRwt prevalence in Tuscany is 90.3 per 1,000,000 persons and ATTRv prevalence is 9.5 per 1,000,000 persons, whereas the annual incidence ranges from 14.4 to 26.7 per 1,000,000 persons and from 0.8 to 2.7 per 1,000,000 persons, respectively. The male gender is predominant in both forms. All except one patient showed evidence of cardiomyopathy. This epidemiological data requires attention, not only to increase the effort for the clinical management and earlier diagnosis, but also to underline the need for the disease-specific treatments.

Effectiveness and safety of routine primary angioplasty in patients aged > or =85 years with acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: Although octogenarians constitute a fast growing portion of cardiovascular patients, few data are available on the outcome of very old patients (age >80 years) with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary angioplasty. METHODS AND RESULTS: Short- and long-term outcomes of 88 consecutive very old (age > or =85 years) patients with STEMI undergoing primary angioplasty were evaluated. In-hospital mortality was 17%, significantly higher in patients with cardiogenic shock (90%; p<0.001), with failure of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; p=0.016), with Killip class > or =III on admission (p=0.018), or with chronic renal failure (p=0.033). Major bleeding complications occurred in 11 patients (12%). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified 3 independent predictors of in-hospital death: age > or =90 years (p=0.018), Killip > or =III on admission (p=0.018), and PCI failure (p=0.025). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified age > or =90 years (p=0.008), Killip > or =III on admission (p=0.015), and time from symptoms to PCI >12 h (p=0.04) as independent predictors of mortality at long-term follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The low incidence of procedural complications, together with good long term survival, suggest that primary PCI in STEMI patients > or =85 years is safe and efficacious, with a low rate of PCI failure in the presence of a low Killip class on admission, whereas primary PCI is unable to affect the poor prognosis for very old patients with cardiogenic shock.

Role of glycoprotein Ia gene polymorphisms in determining platelet function in myocardial infarction patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention on dual antiplatelet treatment.

Response variability to antiplatelet treatment has been described and the widespread use of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and clopidogrel requires clarification of the residual platelet reactivity (RPR). Various glycoprotein Ia (GpIa) polymorphisms have been investigated, but their influence on platelet reactivity in myocardial infarction (MI) patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) on dual antiplatelet treatment is not still elucidated. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of C807T, G873A and T837C polymorphisms of GpIa on modulating platelet function in MI patients on dual antiplatelet treatment undergoing PCI. We measured platelet function by both a point-of-care assay (PFA100) and platelet-rich-plasma aggregation in 289 MI patients undergoing PCI and receiving dual antiplatelet treatment. Our data show that C807T/G873A polymorphisms, but not T837C, are associated with higher platelet reactivity. Carriers of the 807T/873A allele had significantly higher platelet aggregation values after arachidonic acid (AA) and collagen stimuli and, even if they did not reach the statistical significance, after 2 and 10 microM ADP stimuli; 807T/873A allele carriers had also significantly shorter closure times on PFA100/epinephrine membranes. At the multiple analyses, C807T/G873A polymorphisms resulted an independent risk factor for RPR defined by both AA induced platelet aggregation (OR=3.0, 95%CI 1.17-7.89, p=0.022) or by PFA100/epinephrine (OR=4.1, 95%CI 1.53-10.89, p=0.005). In conclusion, this study shows the 807T/873A allele of the GpIa gene is an independent risk factor for the RPR on dual antiplatelet treatment, and extends, in a larger acute coronary syndrome population, the observation that the 807T/873A allele is associated with higher platelet reactivity.

Residual platelet reactivity is an independent predictor of myocardial injury in acute myocardial infarction patients on antiaggregant therapy.

In this study we sought to evaluate if platelet function measured after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) affects the severity of myocardial infarction (MI), measured by markers of cardiac necrosis. We measured platelet function by both a point-of-care assay (PFA-100) and platelet-rich plasma aggregation by two agonists (arachidonic acid -AA- and 2 and 10 microM ADP) in 367 patients with MI after PCI (200 patients on dual antiplatelet agents - group A- and 167 on dual antiplatelet agents plus GpIIb/IIIa inhibitors - group B). One hundred twenty-one (32.9%) patients were found to have a residual platelet reactivity (RPR) by PFA (CT/EPI <203 sec): 74/200 (37%) in group A and 47/167 (28.1%) in group B (p = 0.07). In 129 (35.1%) patients we found a RPR by AA-PA: 80/200 (40%) in group A and 49/167 (29.3%) in group B (p < 0.05). Seventeen out of 367 (4.6%) were found to have a RPR by ADP2-PA [15/200 (7.5%) in group A and 2/167 (1.2%) in group B; p < 0.005] and 88/367 (23.9%) by ADP10-PA [64/200 (32%) in group A and 24/167 (14.4%) in group B, p < 0.0001]. CK-MB and cTnI mean peak values were significantly higher in the first tertile of CT/ADP and CT/EPI distribution with respect to the other tertiles and they were significantly higher in patients with RPR by CT/EPI in both group A and group B patients. CK-MB and cTnI peak values were significantly higher in the third tertile of AA-PA, ADP 2 microM-PA and ADP 10 microM-PA distribution with respect to the other tertiles and were significantly higher in patients with RPR by AA-PA and by ADP 10-PA in both group A and group B patients. Multivariate analysis revealed platelet function as an independent predictor of CK-MB and cTnI peak values in both groups of patients independently of clinical, laboratory ad procedural parameters. In conclusion, we found that the severity of MI in patients with MI undergoing primary PCI is influenced by a persistent platelet activation on multiple antiplatelet therapy.

Comparison of different methods to evaluate the effect of aspirin on platelet function in high-risk patients with ischemic heart disease receiving dual antiplatelet treatment.

Patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) receiving aspirin therapy with a residual platelet reactivity (RPR) may be at increased risk of ischemic vascular events. Point-of-care (POC) methods PFA-100 (Dade-Behring, Marburg, Germany) and VerifyNow (Accumetrics, San Diego, CA) assays have been suggested as rapid tools to evaluate RPR. We compared PFA-100 closure times by collagen/epinephrine and VerifyNow Aspirin assays with light transmission aggregation (LTA) induced by 1 mmol/L of arachidonic acid in 484 patients with CAD undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention and receiving dual antiplatelet therapy. RPR was detected in 30.0% of patients by LTA, in 32.4% by PFA-100, and in 14.3% by VerifyNow. Significant correlations were found among 3 methods (all P < .0001). In relation to the presence or absence of RPR by LTA and PFA-100, by LTA and VerifyNow, and by PFA-100 and VerifyNow, samples were significantly concordant (all P < .0001). Assuming LTA as the reference method, PFA-100 and VerifyNow showed sensitivity of 62.1% and 39.3% and specificity of 80.2% and 96.4%, respectively. The cutoff values for POC methods need to be defined for clinical use.