Cardiac amyloidosis: a hidden cause of cardiovascular complications in oncology practice

Abstract

Amyloidosis is rare, but known cause of heart failure, cardiomyopathy, coronary artery disease, disorders of cardiac conduction system and valvular damage. Disease often remains undetected until it reaches an advanced stage. Currently, we distinguish several types of amyloidosis. Cardiac amyloidosis may be caused by cancer, chronic inflammation, genetic factors and by aging related processes.Overproduction of amyloidogenic proteins by tumor cells has a key role in the pathogenesis of immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis. Cardiovascular complications in patients with amyloidosis can be induced by insoluble deposits of misfolded proteins or by direct toxic effects of amyloidogenic molecules on cardiomyocytes and endothelial cells.In this review we focus mainly on pathophysiological mechanisms of cardiac amyloidosis, classification of cardiac amyloidosis types and their cardiovascular manifestations.