New Treatments Are Changing Lives for People With Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy, Cedars-Sinai Says
New therapies developed over the past decade are changing the outlook for people with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, a heart condition experts believe is severely underdiagnosed, Cedars-Sinai reports.
The condition occurs when a protein called transthyretin misfolds and forms amyloid fibrils that accumulate in the heart, making it stiff and unable to pump properly, causing shortness of breath, leg swelling and, as it progresses, heart failure.
One patient, Larry Teel, 74, of Newport Beach, California, was diagnosed in 2024 as he approached retirement and was told he had just two years to live. His cardiologist referred him to Dr. Lily Stern, an advanced heart disease cardiologist at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, who confirmed the diagnosis with noninvasive tests and started him on a recently approved therapy. Stern said the treatments work best when patients are diagnosed early, before significant signs of heart failure.
(Source: Cedars-Sinai)
Source: Cedars-Sinai
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Cedars-Sinai 医疗中心 Mark Goodson 大楼。Jengod 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Mark Goodson Building at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles. By Jengod, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
