Circulating biomarkers in diagnosis and management of cardiac amyloidosis: a review for internist

Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is due to extracellular myocardial deposition of misfolded proteins resulting in severe cardiac dysfunction and death. The precursors of amyloid fibrils, able of determining a relevant cardiac infiltration, are immunoglobulin-free light chains (AL amyloidosis) and transthyretin (TTR) (both wild and mutated types). The diagnosis of amyloidosis represents a challenge for the clinician given its rarity and its protean clinical presentation, thus an early diagnosis remains a cornerstone for the prognosis of these patients, also in light of the growing available treatments. There is great interest in identifying and applying biomarkers to help diagnose, inform prognosis, guide therapy, and serve as surrogate endpoints in these patients. In AL amyloidosis, biomarkers such as free light chains, natriuretic peptides and troponins are the most extensively studied and validated; they have proved useful in risk stratification, guiding treatment choice and monitoring hematological and organ response. A similar biomarker-based prognostic score is also proposed for ATTR amyloidosis, although studies are small and need to be validated for wild-type and mutant forms. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].