Prognosis and survival in cardiac amyloidosis depend on the promptness of diagnosis and the initiation of appropriate treatment.

Cardiac amyloidosis is a devastating and progressive disease that results from infiltration of the heart by insoluble protein deposits.1 Cardiac amyloidosis may be caused by any of the types of systemic amyloidosis. Amyloidosis is a generic term that is used to describe a group of diseases that result in the formation of amyloid. “Proteins normally aggregate and configure into a mixed alpha helix and beta-pleated sheet.”2 Amyloid is produced by protein misfolding that results in pure beta-pleated sheet formation.2,3 The formation of the abnormal amyloid protein is not fully understood but is currently thought to be a result of “cleavage of the light chains of the immunoglobulins, followed by aggregation of these light chains into the beta-pleated sheet configuration.”2 When stained with Congo red and viewed...

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