Description

Cardiac transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR), the most common amyloidosis form with cardiac involvement, is caused by tissue deposition of misfolded TTR, a transport Protein for thyroxine and retinol. Ventricular depositions of amyloid fibrils results in an infiltrative cardiomyopathy, progressing from pronounced myocardial wall thickening, to diastolic and systolic dysfunction and finally chronic heart failure.

While treatment options are now available, it remains unclear how to monitor therapy response and disease progression. No makers have been identified that predict outcome prior to initiation of therapy, thus patient selection for therapy remains challenging.

The investigators study will address these issues and will provide systematically assessed CMR data before and over the course of 18 months after therapy initiation. Clinical and laboratory follow-up will be performed every 3-6 months. The investigators study is based on an open, uncontrolled, structured collection of retrospective and prospective data from all patients diagnosed with amyloidosis at the Inselspital Bern with the aim to follow patients undergoing therapy.

The investigators hypothesize that CMR feature tracking (FT) and measures of T1- and T2- mapping, such as extracellular volume (ECV) may better correlate with disease severity and help to identify patients likely to benefit from (ongoing) TTR stabilizing therapy. Beside standard CMR assessments, the investigators will use CMR feature tracking to quantify global and regional myocardial function. FT has proven to be an excellent predictor in various cardiomyopathies.

The proposed study will evaluate the potential of CMR to identify patients likely to benefit from therapy, monitor treatment response and balance individual patient benefit and health care cost.