Early diagnosis, disease stage and prognosis in wild‐type transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy: The DIAMOND study

Aims: Disease staging and prognostic scoring in wild-type transthyretin-related cardiac amyloidosis (ATTRwt-CA) can be captured by two systems (NAC and Columbia scores). However, uncertainty remains as epidemiology of the disease is evolving rapidly. We evaluated features associated with staging systems across ATTRwt-CA patients from different diagnostic pathways, and their association with prognosis. Methods: We performed an analysis on DIAMOND patients with available data to evaluate NAC and Columbia score. DIAMOND was a retrospective study from 17 Italian referral centres for CA, enrolling 1281 patients diagnosed between 2016 and 2021, and aimed at describing characteristics of pathways leading to ATTRwt-CA diagnosis. Of the original cohort, 811 patients were included in this analysis. Each patient had NAC and Columbia score calculated. Patients were grouped according to NAC and Columbia scoring classes. We described characteristics of patients according to staging classes and diagnostic pathways at diagnosis. Prevalence of early diagnoses, defined as NAC Ia, NYHA class I, no use of diuretics, no history of heart failure (HF) hospitalizations nor of atrial fibrillation prior to diagnosis, was investigated. Finally, prognostic variables were tested alone and grouped as NAC or Columbia scores in Cox univariate and multivariate regression analyses. Prognosis was investigated as all-cause mortality, in the whole population and dividing patients in HF versus other diagnostic pathways. Results: Only 1% of the study population had an early ATTRwt-CA diagnosis. Distribution of prognostic variables and of NAC and Columbia classes was heterogeneous across diagnostic pathways. The prevalence of NAC III and Columbia III was higher in the HF diagnostic pathway, but all NAC and Columbia classes were present in all pathways. Both NAC and Columbia scores were associated with all-cause mortality at univariate Cox regression analysis in the whole population, in patients from the HF diagnostic pathway and in those from other pathways. At multivariate analysis, Columbia score remained significantly associated with the outcome, together with age at diagnosis, left ventricular ejection fraction and maximal wall thickness. Conclusions: In this contemporary nationwide cohort, an ATTRwt-CA early diagnosis was very rare. Disease staging with NAC and Columbia scoring systems determined classes of patients with heterogeneous features. Both scores were significantly associated with mortality, but other variables also had prognostic significance

Diagnostic pathways to wild-type transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy: a multicentre network study

Aim Epidemiology of wild-type transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTRwt-CA) remains poorly defined. A better characterization of pathways leading to ATTRwt-CA diagnosis is of key importance, and potentially informative of disease course and prognosis. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of contemporary pathways leading to ATTRwt-CA diagnosis, and their potential association with survival.Methods and results This was a retrospective study of patients diagnosed with ATTRwt-CA at 17 Italian referral centres for CA. Patients were categorized into different 'pathways' according to the medical reason that triggered the diagnosis of ATTRwt-CA (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy [HCM] pathway, heart failure [HF] pathway, incidental imaging or incidental clinical pathway). Prognosis was investigated with all-cause mortality as endpoint. Overall, 1281 ATTRwt-CA patients were included in the study. The diagnostic pathway leading to ATTRwt-CA diagnosis was HCM in 7% of patients, HF in 51%, incidental imaging in 23%, incidental clinical in 19%. Patients in the HF pathway, as compared to the others, were older and had a greater prevalence of New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III-IV and chronic kidney disease. Survival was significantly worse in the HF versus other pathways, but similar among the three others. In multivariate model, older age at diagnosis, NYHA class III-IV and some comorbidities but not the HF pathway were independently associated with worse survival.Conclusions Half of contemporary ATTRwt-CA diagnoses occur in a HF setting. These patients had worse clinical profile and outcome than those diagnosed either due to suspected HCM or incidentally, although prognosis remained primarily related to age, NYHA functional class and comorbidities rather than the diagnostic pathway itself