Predictors of Mortality in Light Chain Cardiac Amyloidosis with Heart Failure

Cardiac involvement in systemic amyloidosis (AL) occurs in ~50% of all AL patients. However once symptomatic heart failure develops, therapeutic options are limited thereby conferring a poor overall prognosis. The median survival is <6 months when AL patients are untreated for the underlying plasma cell dyscrasia. We thus sought to identify risk factors of increased mortality in treatment-naïve, AL cardiac amyloidosis with heart failure. Patients with biopsy-proven AL cardiac amyloid, who presented with heart failure and did not received prior AL treatment, were enrolled between 2004-2014, at the initial visit to the Amyloidosis Center at Boston University Medical Center. Routine laboratory tests, physical examination and echocardiography data were collected. There were 165 predominantly white (76.4%), and male (61%) patients, with a mean age of 61.6 ± 9.5 years. Median survival was 10.9 months (95% CI 6.2-14.7). By multivariate analysis increased relative wall thickness (RWT) [HR 6.70; 95% CI 2.45-18.30), older age (HR 1.04; 95% CI 1.01-1.06), higher New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class (HR 1.50; 95% CI 1.02-2.2), log brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels (HR 1.45; 95% CI 1.15-1.81) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels (HR 1.02; 95% CI 1.00-1.04) were significant predictors for increased mortality. In conclusion, in treatment-naïve, AL cardiac amyloidosis patients with heart failure symptoms who lack these high-risk features may have a better outcome. These findings might allow for better risk stratification although outcomes are still poor.