Prevalence, Predictors and Diagnosis of Cardiac Amyloidosis in Patients with Aortic Stenosis

Cardiac amyloidosis and aortic stenosis often share a common clinical phenotype, and are associated with morbidity and mortality if untreated. Cardiac amyloidosis is present in ~15% of patients with aortic stenosis. Clinical suspicion for cardiac amyloidosis in aortic stenosis is often raised based on history (bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome, severe lumbar spinal stenosis, spontaneous biceps rupture), chronic troponin elevation, electrocardiographic features (low-voltage criteria, pseudoinfarct pattern), echocardiogram (bilateral ventricular hypertrophy, abnormal longitudinal strain) and magnetic resonance imaging (late gadolinium enhancement, elevated T1 and T2). Eventual diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis is based either on pyrophosphate nuclear scintigraphy or tissue biopsy depending on which subtype of cardiac amyloidosis is suspected.