Ronald Lehman, MD, and Matthew Maurer, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City published a study in Amyloid that found hip and knee arthroplasty are common among patient with transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis, ATTR-CA.
Here are five things to know:
1. A total of 313 patients with cardiac amyloidosis were analyzed and compared in the study.
2. Drs. Lehman and Maurer found 23.3 percent of patients with ATTR-CA and 9.2 percent of patients with light chain cardiac amyloidosis underwent lower extremity arthroplasty.
3. Compared to the general population, both total knee and total hip arthroplasty were significantly more common among patients with ATTR-CA.
4. On average, surgery occurs seven years before ATTR-CA diagnoses. Physicians are now recommending routine screenings of surgical specimens at the time of surgery to look for transthyretin amyloidosis.
5. Emerging non-invasive methods to diagnosis TTR cardiac amyloidosis without a biopsy may be leveraged in patients undergoing orthopedic procedures to identify ATTR Cardaic amyloidosis earlier in the course of the disease.