It is difficult to say that there is more evidence for cardiac amyloidosis (CA) than for ischemic heart disease. On the other hand, 99 m technetium pyrophosphate ( 99 m Tc-PYP) scintigraphy has been reported to be useful with high sensitivity and specificity, especially in transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis (ATTR) 1,2 Due to the spread of diagnosis using this method, CA, especially wild-type ATTR (ATTRwt) amyloidosis, which has traditionally been considered a rare disease, is more prevalent than previously assumed, and encountered relatively frequently in daily clinical practice. Furthermore, treatment for not only amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, but also ATTR, has also progressed rapidly. Tafamidis, a drug that stabilizes the TTR tetramer and suppresses amyloid fibril formation and tissue deposition, was listed and used in Japan in November 2013 for the treatment of peripheral neuropathy in patients with hereditary (variant) ATTR (ATTRv) amyloidosis. In addition, following the results of the 2018 Transthyretin Amyloidosis Cardiomyopathy Clinical Trial (ATTR-ACT), which showed the efficacy of tafamidis for CA, 3 the use of TTR to treat CA was approved in March 2019 in Japan.Needless to say, amyloidosis is a systemic disease, and in Japan, numerous studies have been conducted and medical treatments devised by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW)'s "Research Group on Amyloidosis", a research project on intractable disease policy. The present guidelines have been developed in coordination between the MHLW's "Research Group on Amyloidosis", the Japanese Circulation Society (JCS) and cardiology-related societies, the Japanese Society of Amyloidosis, and the Japanese Society of Hematology. Systemic amyloidosis specified by the MHLW as being an incurable disease is classified into the following four types.
Most VH-TCFAs healed during 12-month follow-up, whereas new VH-TCFAs also developed. PITs, VH-TCFAs, and ThCFAs showed significant plaque progression compared with fibrous and fibrocalcific plaque.
Compared with standard statin monotherapy, the combination of statin plus ezetimibe showed greater coronary plaque regression, which might be attributed to cholesterol absorption inhibition-induced aggressive lipid lowering. (Plaque Regression With Cholesterol Absorption Inhibitor or Synthesis Inhibitor Evaluated by Intravascular Ultrasound [PRECISE-IVUS]; NCT01043380).
BackgroundThe aim of this study was to elucidate the correlation between angiographic coronary vasomotor responses to intracoronary acetylcholine (ACh) injection, clinical features, and long‐term prognosis in patients with vasospastic angina (VSA).Methods and ResultsThis is a retrospective, observational, single‐center study of 1877 consecutive patients who underwent ACh‐provocation test between January 1991 and December 2010. ACh‐provoked coronary spasm was observed in 873 of 1637 patients included in the present analysis. ACh‐positive patients were more likely to be older male smokers with dyslipidemia, to have a family history of ischemic heart disease, and to have a comorbidity of coronary epicardial stenosis than were ACh‐negative patients. ACh‐positive patients were divided into 2 groups: those with focal (total or subtotal obstruction, n=511) and those with diffuse (severe diffuse vasoconstriction, n=362) spasm patterns. Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified female sex and low comorbidity of coronary epicardial stenosis to correlate with the ACh‐provoked diffuse spasm pattern in patients with VSA. Kaplan–Meier survival curve indicated better 5‐year survival rates free from major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with diffuse spasm pattern compared with those with focal spasm pattern (P=0.019). Multivariable Cox hazard regression analysis identified diffuse spasm pattern as a negative predictor of major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with VSA.ConclusionsACh‐induced diffuse coronary spasm was frequently observed in female VSA patients free of severe coronary epicardial stenosis and was associated with better prognosis than focal spasm. These results suggest the need to identify the ACh‐provoked coronary spasm subtypes in patients with VSA.
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