Rapezzi C et al. - Findings in this study raise the hypothesis that some biological characteristic associated with female gender protects against myocardial involvement in familial transthyretin-related amyloidosis (ATTR). Methods
Aim was to investigate associations between gender and myocardial involvement in systemic amyloidosis
100 AL and 98 familial ATTR pts, plus 12 elderly men with senile systemic amyloidosis were reviewed
Focus was on echocardiographic descriptors of myocardial involvement, wall thickness, and baseline LV function
Results
Among familial ATTR pts, female prevalence was lower within the highest tertile of either echocardiographic indicator of myocardial involvement
Gender was independently associated with height-indexed mean LV wall thickness
Female prevalence appeared rather similar across the different neurological stages
Within the subgroup of familial ATTR pts with amyloidotic cardiomyopathy, women tended to display a considerably less severe morphological and functional echocardiographic profile
Women in the highest tertile of mean LV wall thickness index were more often postmenopausal and had a much higher mean age
Analogous age-related associations were not observable for men
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