Plasma Hepatocyte Growth Factor for Diagnosis and Prognosis in Light Chain and Transthyretin Cardiac Amyloidosis

Circulating biomarkers in diagnosis and management of cardiac amyloidosis: a review for internist

Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is due to extracellular myocardial deposition of misfolded proteins resulting in severe cardiac dysfunction and death. The precursors of amyloid fibrils, able of determining a relevant cardiac infiltration, are immunoglobulin-free light chains (AL amyloidosis) and transthyretin (TTR) (both wild and mutated types). The diagnosis of amyloidosis represents a challenge for the clinician given its rarity and its protean clinical presentation, thus an early diagnosis remains a cornerstone for the prognosis of these patients, also in light of the growing available treatments. There is great interest in identifying and applying biomarkers to help diagnose, inform prognosis, guide therapy, and serve as surrogate endpoints in these patients. In AL amyloidosis, biomarkers such as free light chains, natriuretic peptides and troponins are the most extensively studied and validated; they have proved useful in risk stratification, guiding treatment choice and monitoring hematological and organ response. A similar biomarker-based prognostic score is also proposed for ATTR amyloidosis, although studies are small and need to be validated for wild-type and mutant forms.

Prognostic Value of a Novel Parameter in Patients with Infective Endocarditis

Background

Infective endocarditis (IE) has a high rate of mortality and the prognosis of IE was poor. The purpose of this investigation was to explore the value of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)/lymphocyte and compare it with LDH/lymphocyte percentage (L-LWR) in predicting the in-hospital mortality in IE patients.

Methods

The investigation cohort contained 147 IE patients between January 2017 and December 2019. We retrospectively went over the medical records and selected admission indexes.

Results

Compared with IE patients with adverse events, significantly higher levels of LDH/lymphocyte and significantly lower levels of L-LWR were discovered in IE patients without adverse events. After adjustments, L-LWR (odds ratio (OR): 4.558, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.362-15.256, P = 0.014) still maintained its significant independence. In addition, L-LWR had the highest area under curve (AUC) (0.780, 0.704-0.844, P < 0.001) with good sensitivity (81.89%) and specificity (65.00%) when 34 was selected as the best cutoff value.

Conclusions

L-LWR is a reliable, low-priced, easily applicable, and independent prognostic parameter for in-hospital death with good performance in patients with IE.

Cardiac Amyloidosis for the Primary Care Provider: A Practical Review to Promote Earlier Recognition of Disease

Cardiac amyloidosis is increasingly recognized as an underdiagnosed cause of heart failure. Diagnostic delays of up to 3 years from symptom onset may occur, and patients may be evaluated by more than 5 specialists prior to receiving the correct diagnosis. Newly available therapies improve clinical outcomes by preventing amyloid fibril deposition and are usually more effective in early stages of disease, making early diagnosis essential. Better awareness among primary care providers of the clinical presentation and modern treatment landscape is essential to improve timely diagnosis and early treatment of this disease. In this review, we provide practical guidance on the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnostic evaluation, and treatment of transthyretin and light chain cardiac amyloidosis to promote earlier disease recognition among primary care providers.

Use of biomarkers to diagnose and manage cardiac amyloidosis

Amyloidoses are characterized by the tissue accumulation of misfolded proteins into insoluble fibrils. The two most common types of systemic amyloidosis result from the deposition of immunoglobulin light chains (AL) and wild-type or variant transthyretin (ATTRwt/ATTRv). Cardiac involvement is the main determinant of outcome in both AL and ATTR, and cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is increasingly recognized as a cause of heart failure. In CA, circulating biomarkers are important diagnostic tools, allow to refine risk stratification at baseline and during follow-up, help to tailor the therapeutic strategy and monitor the response to treatment. Among amyloid precursors, free light chains are established biomarkers in AL amyloidosis, while the plasma transthyretin assay is currently being investigated as a tool for supporting the diagnosis of ATTRv amyloidosis, predicting outcome and monitor response to novel tetramer stabilizers or small interfering RNA drugs in ATTR CA. Natriuretic peptides (NPs) and troponins are consistently elevated in patients with AL and ATTR CA. Plasma NPs, troponins and free light chains hold prognostic significance in AL amyloidosis, and are evaluated for therapy decision-making and follow-up, while the value of NPs and troponins in ATTR is less well established. Biomarkers can be usefully integrated with clinical and imaging variables at all levels of the clinical algorithm of systemic amyloidosis, from screening to diagnosis and prognosis, and treatment tailoring.