Familial and primary (AL) cardiac amyloidosis: echocardiographically similar diseases with distinctly different clinical outcomes.

Abstract

Although cardiac involvement is echocardiographically indistinguishable, cardiac mortality is very different between the two forms of amyloidosis. Preservation of electrocardiographic voltage in familial amyloidosis suggests that the particular biochemical characteristics of distinct types of amyloid fibril have different pathological effects on the myocardium. This distinction becomes critical in the evaluation, treatment, and management of patients who have a diagnosis within the spectrum of the protein deposition diseases.