Cardiac Amyloidosis

With the first drug treatments for cardiac amyloidosis recently entering the market, there has been an explosion of interest to diagnose and care for these patients. It is considered a rare disease, but many experts now say it is actually just be under diagnosed. The disease is caused by protein misfolding. Normally soluble proteins in the bloodstream become insoluble and deposit abnormally in the tissues and organs throughout the body. There are three main kinds of amyloid that affect the heart, light chain amyloid (AL) and two types of transthyretin amyloid (ATTR or TTR). The first type of ATTR is hereditary, or familial amyloid, and the second is wild type, or age-related TTR amyloid. Nuclear imaging, echocardiography, CT and MRI all play roles in diagnosing amyloid and in determining the subtype, which is required for targeted treatment.

FDA approves vutrisiran to treat ATTR-CM
The subcutaneous drug, sold under the brand name Amvuttra, joins an ATTR-CM market that already includes Pfizer’s tafamidis (Vyndaqel, Vyndamax) and BridgeBio’s acoramidis (Attruby).
Continuation of 99mTc-PYP shortage prompts need for alternative cardiac amyloidosis imaging
After three years of intermittent shortages of nuclear imaging tracer technetium-99m pyrophosphate, there are no signs of the shortage abating.
FDA approves acoramidis, BridgeBio’s new ATTR-CM drug
Acoramidis, a selective transthyretin stabilizer being sold under the brand name Attruby, is now the second ATTR-CM medication to gain FDA approval.
ATTR-CM drug acoramidis, now approved by the FDA, linked to positive long-term data
Cardiovascular Business spoke with cardiologist Daniel Judge, MD, about the long-term benefits of acoramidis, a new drug therapy that just received FDA approval to treat transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy.
FDA clears AI screening tool for cardiac amyloidosis
Ultromics designed EchoGo Amyloidosis to evaluate routine echocardiogram results for signs of cardiac amyloidosis. It received the FDA's breakthrough device designation back in 2023.

DOACs outperform VKAs among cardiac amyloidosis patients with HF, AFib

Outcomes from patients prescribed apixaban, rivaroxaban or dabigatran were compared with outcomes from patients given warfarin.

Attralus completes financing to validate pan-amyloid nuclear imaging agent

Biopharmaceutical firm Attralus has completed a $25 million Series A financing designed to further validate its AT-01 pan-amyloid radiotracer for PET/CT.

Specialists share experience prescribing a historically expensive cardiovascular medication

Tafamidis received FDA approval in May 2019 for the treatment of transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM). It has a list price of $225,000 per year.

Heart transplants provide value for patients with AL, ATTR cardiac amyloidosis

With the disease becoming more and more common in the United States, researchers have been hard at work determining the best possible treatment options.

America’s most expensive CV drug needs a 93% price cut

A 92.6% reduction in the list price of tafamidis—an effective but ultimately unaffordable drug designed to treat transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy—would be required to make the medication accessible to the average heart patient, researchers reported in Circulation Feb. 12.

Cardiac amyloidosis increasingly common in US

New research suggests the incidence of cardiac amyloidosis in the U.S. is trending up, bringing with it high rates of morbidity and mortality.

ASNC releases multisocietal amyloidosis imaging guidelines

The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, together with eight other nuclear medicine and cardiology societies, have published a consensus document outlining the best practices for imaging and diagnosing cardiac amyloidosis.

ASNC publishes new amyloidosis imaging guidelines

“We anticipate that these expert multisocietal consensus recommendations on multimodality imaging in cardiac amyloidosis will standardize the diagnosis and improve the management of this highly morbid and underdiagnosed disease," wrote authors of the new guidelines published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.

Cardiac Amyloidosis

FDA approves vutrisiran to treat ATTR-CM

Continuation of 99mTc-PYP shortage prompts need for alternative cardiac amyloidosis imaging

FDA approves acoramidis, BridgeBio’s new ATTR-CM drug

ATTR-CM drug acoramidis, now approved by the FDA, linked to positive long-term data

FDA clears AI screening tool for cardiac amyloidosis