{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,27]],"date-time":"2026-09-27T14:13:35Z","timestamp":1790518415056,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,23]],"date-time":"2021-11-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1637625600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Cardiovasc. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:p><jats:bold>Background:<\/jats:bold> The prevalence of cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is unknown.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Aims and Methods:<\/jats:bold> We sought to (a) determine the prevalence of CA in unselected patients \u226575 years undergoing autopsy, (b) characterize cardiological profiles of CA and non-CA patients by providing clinical-histological correlations, and (c) compare their cardiological profiles. After dedicated staining, the localization (interstitial or vascular) and the distribution (non-diffuse or diffuse) of amyloid deposition were analyzed. Cardiological data at last evaluation were retrospectively assessed for the presence of CA red-flags.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Results:<\/jats:bold> CA (50% light chains, 50% transthyretin) was found in 43% (<jats:italic>n<\/jats:italic> = 24\/56) of the autopsied hearts. Atria were involved in 96% of cases. Amyloid localized both at the perivascular and interstitial levels (95.5 and 85%, respectively) with a slightly predominant non-diffuse distribution (58% of cases). Compared to the other patients, CA patients had a more frequent history of heart failure (HF) (79 vs. 47%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.014), advanced NYHA functional class (III-IV 25 vs. 6%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.047), atrial fibrillation (68 vs. 36%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.019), discrepancy between QRS voltage and left ventricular (LV) thickness (70 vs. 12%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001), thicker LV walls (15 vs. 11 mm, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.001), enlarged left atrium (49 vs. 42 mm, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.019) and restrictive filling pattern (56 vs. 19%, <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.020). The presence of right ventricular amyloidosis seemed to identify hearts with a higher amyloid burden. Among the CA patients, &amp;gt;30% had \u22653 echocardiographic red-flags of disease.<\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:bold>Conclusion:<\/jats:bold> CA can be found in 43% of autopsied hearts from patients \u226575 years old, especially in patients with HF, LV hypertrophy and atrial fibrillation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fcvm.2021.749523","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,30]],"date-time":"2021-11-30T12:15:56Z","timestamp":1638274556000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":60,"title":["Incidence and Characterization of Concealed Cardiac Amyloidosis Among Unselected Elderly Patients Undergoing Post-mortem 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