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Case report
Isolated cardiovascular involvement in light chain amyloidosis
  1. Ahamed Shaheer Ahmed1,
  2. Sampath Kumar1,
  3. Gautam Sharma1 and
  4. Sudheer Arava2
  1. 1Cardiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
  2. 2Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
  1. Correspondence to Professor Gautam Sharma; drgautamsharma12{at}gmail.com

Abstract

A 50-year-old woman presented with complaints of palpitations and breathlessness of 6 months’ duration. She was being treated elsewhere as a case of dilated cardiomyopathy. On evaluation she had racoon eyes, poor progression of R wave on ECG and low-voltage complexes in the limb leads. Echocardiography revealed biventricular hypertrophy, diastolic dysfunction and moderate systolic dysfunction. Cardiac MRI showed features suggestive of amyloidosis. Bone marrow biopsy revealed raised plasma cell count, and endomyocardial biopsy showed amyloid deposits in the myocardium. Free lambda light chain levels were elevated, even though serum and urine electrophoresis did not show any monoclonal band. In this ‘text book case of cardiac amyloidosis’, apart from cardiovascular system no other organ system was affected, which is uncommon in primary light chain amyloidosis. The patient was started on CyBorD (cyclophosphamide, bortezomib and dexamethasone) regimen.

  • heart failure
  • cardiovascular medicine

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Footnotes

  • Contributors ASA prepared the manuscript. SK was involved in patient care and data collection. GS was involved in patient care, provided critical inputs and finalised the manuscript. SA did the histopathological examination.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent for publication Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.