Histologic remission of cardiac amyloidosis: a case report

Abstract

The main determinant of survival in amyloid light chain amyloidosis is cardiac involvement. The rate of change in wall thickness may be a strong predictor of survival. After treatment, some hematologic responders have had documented regression of wall thickness by echocardiography with resolution of heart failure symptoms. Herein, we demonstrate a case of treated immunoglobulin light chain cardiac amyloidosis with echocardiographic wall thinning and cardiac biopsies demonstrating complete histologic remission. This observation suggests a mechanism of treatment response and that with appropriately timed treatment, cardiac deposition of amyloid fibrils can be completely reversed.

Keywords::

• Biopsy
• cardiac amyloid
• histologic regression
• echocardiography

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Alan S. Cohen, Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, for his critical appraisal of the manuscript.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.