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Epidemiological Circumstance associated with Dengue within South america.
Questions on the indication of the biologics, the selection of patients, and finally criteria for monitoring the efficacy in individual patients need to be urgently answered, and care pathways need to be established integrating the current standard of care including surgery. BACKGROUND Right heart function is an important prognostic determinant in cardiac amyloidosis. In this study we characterized serial changes in right and left heart function and evaluated their prognostic significance. METHODS Cardiac amyloidosis patients with baseline and follow-up echocardiograms were included. Right and left heart function measured at baseline, 1 year, and most recent follow-up were compared and correlated with all-cause mortality or cardiovascular hospitalization. RESULTS Ninety-three patients were included; 36 (39%) with light chain amyloidosis and 57 (61%) with transthyretin amyloidosis. Among measures of right heart function for the study population and light chain and transthyretin amyloidosis subtypes, only absolute right ventricular (RV) free wall longitudinal strain (FWLS) changed significantly from baseline to 1 year and most recent follow-up echocardiogram. After a median of 26 months (range, 14-35 months), 21 (22%) patients died and 17 (18%) had a cardiovascular hospitalization. Baseline RV FWLS was significantly associated with the primary endpoint (hazard ratio, 1.2 per % change; 95% confidence interval, 0.8-2.6; P less then 0.01), whereas change from baseline to 1 year was not for any measure of right heart function. Baseline left ventricular (LV) global longitudinal strain (GLS) and 1 year change were significantly associated with the primary end point. Change in RV FWLS at 1 year was significantly correlated with baseline LV GLS (r = 0.68; P = 0.01) and change at 1 year follow-up (r = 0.72; P less then 0.01). CONCLUSIONS In cardiac amyloidosis patients, baseline RV FWLS was associated with adverse outcomes whereas changes at follow-up was not. Change in RV FWLS was significantly correlated with baseline and follow-up change in LV GLS, possibly reflecting progressive biventricular amyloid deposition. BACKGROUND The severity of heart disease varies widely among patients with transthyretin-related cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CA) at presentation, and availability of tools able to predict prognosis is essential for clinical and research purposes. Currently, two biomarker-based staging systems are available. The aim of this study was to compare their predictive performance. METHODS A total of 175 patients diagnosed with ATTR-CA (133 wild-type and 42 hereditary) were stratified into different stages based on 2 systems the first system included N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and the second one included NT-proBNP and troponin I (TnI). Survival estimates and age-adjusted survival for all-cause mortality were analysed over a median follow-up of 27 months (interquartile range 16-43 months). RESULTS Predictive performance was more accurate when NT-proBNP and eGFR were used, resulting in effective survival stratification 64.4 months for stage 1, 44.6 months for stage 2, and 20.5 months for stage 3 (P less then 0.01 for stages 1 vs 2; P less then 0.0001 for stages 1 vs 3; P less then 0.0001 stages 2 vs 3). The combination of NT-proBNP and TnI was unable to effectively differentiate survival 64.5 months for stage 1, 50.9 months for stage 2, and 27.3 months for stage 3 (P = 0.223 for stages 1 vs 2; P less then 0.0001 for stages 1 vs 3; P less then 0.0001 for stages 2 vs 3). The same results were seen after age adjustment. CONCLUSIONS A staging system using NT-proBNP and eGFR had better prognostic accuracy for ATTR-CA patients compared with one using NTproBNP and TnI. Cardiac amyloidosis occurs secondarily to the deposition of insoluble protein fibrils in cardiac tissue leading to progressive myocardial dysfunction, clinical heart failure, and arrhythmia. In recent years, increasing awareness and improved screening have resulted in an increased prevalence of cardiac amyloidosis, with contemporary estimates reporting a prevalence of 18-55 cases per 100,000 person-years, accounting for > 13% of heart failure hospitalizations. The arrhythmic manifestations of cardiac amyloidosis can range from conduction-system disease and bradyarrhythmias to atrial fibrillation and sudden cardiac death. Bradyarrhythmias and conduction system disease may occur secondarily to amyloid infiltration, but the timing of pacemaker implantation remains unclear. When available, biventricular pacing should be considered in symptomatic patients, particularly in those expected to receive a high burden of ventricular pacing (> 40%). The management of atrial fibrillation can be challenging, because contemporary agents for rate and rhythm control may be poorly tolerated in patients with cardiac amyloidosis. Patients with cardiac amyloidosis also have a high rate of intracardiac thrombus and should be anticoagulated in the presence of atrial fibrillation (regardless of CHADS2 score). We generally consider transesophageal echocardiography before cardioversion regardless of anticoagulation status or duration of arrhythmia. Ventricular arrhythmias may also occur in patients with cardiac amyloidosis, and decisions surrounding implantable cardioverter-defibrillator implantation should balance the risks of ventricular arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death with the competing risks of worsening heart failure and noncardiac death. In this review, we cover the primary arrhythmic manifestations of cardiac amyloidosis and discuss their management considerations. The systemic amyloidoses are a group of diseases characterized by the deposition of amyloid, a material formed from misfolding of proteins, in one or more organs. see more The 2 commonest forms of amyloidosis are transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR), derived from wild-type or mutant transthyretin, and light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, derived from abnormal circulating light chains produced by plasma cell dyscrasia. Both frequently involve the heart, producing an infiltrative cardiomyopathy with restrictive pathophysiology. Although advances in echocardiographic, magnetic resonance, and nuclear imaging have rendered diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis easier, diagnosis is still often delayed. This review focuses on noncardiac manifestations of AL and TTR amyloidosis that may aid the cardiologist in making an earlier diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis in a patient with cardiac symptoms (such as periorbital purpura in AL amyloidosis and a history of carpal tunnel syndrome and ruptured biceps tendon in ATTR). It also focuses on the unique challenges that treatment of cardiac amyloidosis poses owing to concomitant noncardiac disease, such as nephrotic syndrome-related edema and hypotension due to autonomic neuropathy, and stresses the importance of a precise typing of amyloidosis and a multidisciplinary approach to therapy.
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