ORLANDO, Fla. - Cardiac amyloidosis is a systemic disorder that affects the heart and can also affect other organs such as the kidneys and nervous system. AdventHealth says approximately 50-150,000 people in the U.S. have systemic amyloidosis. Patients are now being identified earlier than ever, and new drugs approved by the FDA are prolonging their lives significantly.
In the past, if you got a diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis, your options were very limited.
“There was actually no treatment to slow down the process or the progression of the disease. The only treatment that was successful was a heart-liver transplant,” said Marcos S. Hazday, MD, medical director of inherited & acquired cardiomyopathies at the AdventHealth Heart, Lung, and Vascular Institute.