Electrocardiographic parameters and prognosis of renal light chain amyloidosis

Cardiac involvement frequently occurs in patients with renal light chain (AL) amyloidosis, which predisposes these patients to heart failure, arrhythmia, or infarction with poor prognosis.

Twelve-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) parameters may be associated with prognosis in renal AL amyloidosis.

A retrospective single-center cohort study was performed. Biopsy-proven renal AL amyloidosis patients from January 2014 to December 2018 at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University were enrolled. The baseline demographic information, laboratory tests, 12-lead ECG parameters at the time of diagnosis were obtained from medical records. The endpoint was defined as the time to all-cause death from baseline for all deceased patients and time to censor date (June 2019) for all other patients. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were conducted to identify the relationship between ECG parameters and all-cause mortality.

A total of 69 patients with a mean age of 61.5 ± 11.4 years were enrolled in this study. The median PR interval and QTc interval were 160 (140, 186) and 417 ± 42 ms. The mean follow-up duration was 15.9 ± 13.8 months. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that regardless of adjustment for age, gender and serum creatinine, PR interval (HR 1.022, 95% CI: 1.007-1.038, P = .005), and QTc interval (HR 1.012, 95% CI: 1.004-1.021, P = .004) were independently associated with all-cause mortality.

PR interval and QTc interval were independently associated with all-cause mortality in renal AL amyloidosis patients. ECG parameters may provide prognostic potential of renal AL amyloidosis patients and promote the management of patients with renal AL amyloidosis.