One hundred thirty-two patients with biopsy-proven systemic amyloidosis underwent echocardiographic examination to define the spectrum of cardiac involvement. Echocardiographic abnormalities were then correlated with clinical variables and survival at follow-up. Patients were subgrouped by left ventricular wall thickness: Group I, mean wall thickness 12 mm or less; Group II, mean wall thickness greater than 12 mm but less than 15 mm; Group III, mean wall thickness 15 mm or greater; or Group IV, atypical features such as wall motion abnormalities or left ventricular dilation. Patients with greater wall thickness had a higher frequency of associated echocardiographic abnormalities such as left atrial enlargement or granular sparkling appearance on two-dimensional examination and, more commonly, reduced systolic function. The occurrence of clinical congestive heart failure was strongly correlated with greater wall thickness and multiple other echocardiographic abnormalities. Survival was negatively influenced both by greater wall thickness and reduced systolic function. The median survival of the entire group was 1.1 years. Echocardiographic examination is an important tool for establishing the presence of cardiac amyloid involvement and may be useful in estimating prognosis in such patients.
With increasing age, the thoracic aorta shows progressive fibroplastic intimal thickening, which is thought to be pre-atheromatous. A similar progressive intimal thickening in the renal cortical arteries is the distinguishing feature of the nephrosclerosis which underlies essential hypertension. Therefore, the earliest detectable youthful precursors of atherosclerosis and hypertension show strong morphological resemblances to each other. In this study, close statistical associations have been shown between the two types of arterial intimal fibroplasia. Both conditions show similar sigmoid growth curves from ages 6 to 70 years, thereby generating correlations across age groups of r = 0.99 in New Orleans and r = 0.95 in Mexico City. Specimens gathered in New Orleans were found to have about 1.4 times greater arterial intimal thickening than specimens from Mexico City, and this excess was seen at all ages in both the aortas and the renal cortical arteries. It seems likely that intimal fibroplasia of arteries is reflecting similar biological principles at all levels of the vascular tree. Whatever etiological factors vary between New Orleans and Mexico City, those factors appear to act directly at a tissue level to promote the early precursors of atherosclerosis and of the nephrosclerosis that underlies hypertension.
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