Guideline-Directed Medical Therapy for Heart Failure in Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy

Circ Heart Fail. 2025 Apr;18(4):e011796. doi: 10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.124.011796. Epub 2025 Feb 18.

Abstract

Cardiac amyloidosis is an underdiagnosed cause of infiltrative cardiomyopathy, leading to heart failure across the spectrum of ejection fractions. Although there are approved disease-modulating therapies for the transthyretin subtype (transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy [ATTR-CM]), the role of heart failure medications remains uncertain and challenging in clinical practice. Their effects on clinical outcomes, such as mortality and hospitalization, are unknown for ATTR-CM. This review aims to explore the use of these medications in ATTR-CM, considering the disease's stage and patient-specific issues, such as fluid homeostasis, autonomic dysfunction, conduction disorders, low and fixed stroke volumes, and decreased functional capacity. As our understanding of this condition deepens, it is important to reassess the impact of contemporary heart failure medication in ATTR-CM. Finally, the relevance of guideline recommendations for heart failure drugs based on left ventricular ejection fraction should be reconsidered in the context of ATTR-CM.

Keywords: amyloidosis; cardiomyopathies; heart failure; hospitalization.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Amyloid Neuropathies, Familial* / complications
  • Amyloid Neuropathies, Familial* / drug therapy
  • Amyloid Neuropathies, Familial* / physiopathology
  • Cardiomyopathies* / diagnosis
  • Cardiomyopathies* / drug therapy
  • Cardiomyopathies* / physiopathology
  • Heart Failure* / diagnosis
  • Heart Failure* / drug therapy
  • Heart Failure* / etiology
  • Heart Failure* / physiopathology
  • Humans
  • Practice Guidelines as Topic*
  • Stroke Volume / drug effects
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Ventricular Function, Left / drug effects

Supplementary concepts

  • Amyloidosis, Hereditary, Transthyretin-Related