Hereditary cardiac amyloidosis associated with Pro24Ser transthyretin mutation: a case report

Background: Transthyretin amyloidosis is a systemic disorder caused by extracellular deposition of insoluble amyloid fibrils in peripheral and autonomic nerves, heart, kidney, gastrointestinal tract, and other organs. Hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis is an autosomal dominant disease. More than 120 mutations have been reported in the transthyretin gene with considerable phenotypic heterogeneity and geographic diversity. Among them, a sporadic case of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis with cardiac-predominant phenotype is very rare, progressive, and potentially fatal if left undiagnosed. However, a clinical diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis still remains challenging due to non-specific symptoms, and less sensitivity and specificity of medical examinations.

Case presentation: A 60-year-old Japanese man with a history of embolic stroke and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy visited our department for heart failure. The present case exhibited only cardiomyopathy without any clinical signs of systemic amyloidosis manifested as carpal tunnel syndrome, polyneuropathy, or autonomic dysfunction. An echocardiogram revealed severe asymmetric left ventricular hypertrophy, biatrial dilatation, pericardial effusion, and preserved left ventricular ejection fraction of 50% with severe diastolic dysfunction. Technetium pyrophosphate scintigraphy indicated marked diffuse myocardial uptake of technetium pyrophosphate, strongly suggesting transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis, which was firmly confirmed by a left ventricular endomyocardial biopsy. Genetic analysis demonstrated a transthyretin C70T (Pro24Ser) heterozygous mutation. Tafamidis, a transthyretin stabilizer, was started. His cardiac symptoms remained unchanged for 12 months.

Conclusions: Here we report the case of a patient with hereditary cardiac amyloidosis associated with a Pro24Ser mutation in transthyretin, which is the first case reported in Japan. Technetium pyrophosphate scintigraphy was extremely useful for definitive diagnosis. Thus, we propose that the nuclear imaging technique should be taken into account even for an exploratory diagnosis of transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis.