54. Case Report: Wild type aTTR Cardiac Amyloid – Washington University in St. Louis

CardioNerd (Amit Goyal) join Washington University in St. Louis cardiology fellows (Adam Lick, Manny Rivera Maza, and Sam Lindner) for some amazing local St. Louis craft brews! They discuss a fascinating case of  wild-type aTTR cardiac amyloid. Prior to meeting up with the group, Amit bumps into Rachita Navara: a Wash U #FIT, aspiring electrophysiologist, & a rock star of the band "The Pacemakers" (be sure to check out their performance at the end of the episode!) who shares thoughts about the program and her cutting edge contributions to the field of EP. Dr. Katie Zhang provides the E-CPR and program director Dr. Andy Kates provides a message for applicants. Episode notes were developed by Johns Hopkins internal medicine resident Colin Blumenthal with mentorship from University of Maryland cardiology fellow Karan Desai.  

Jump to: Patient summary - Case figures & media - Case teaching - References - Production team

Episode graphic by Dr. Carine Hamo

The CardioNerds Cardiology Case Reports series shines light on the hidden curriculum of medical storytelling. We learn together while discussing fascinating cases in this fun, engaging, and educational format. Each episode ends with an “Expert CardioNerd Perspectives & Review” (E-CPR) for a nuanced teaching from a content expert. We truly believe that hearing about a patient is the singular theme that unifies everyone at every level, from the student to the professor emeritus.

We are teaming up with the ACC FIT Section to use the #CNCR episodes to showcase CV education across the country in the era of virtual recruitment. As part of the recruitment series, each episode features fellows from a given program discussing and teaching about an interesting case as well as sharing what makes their hearts flutter about their fellowship training. The case discussion is followed by both an E-CPR segment and a message from the program director.

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Patient Summary

A man in his early 70s, with a history of hypertension, a bicuspid aortic valve, chronic kidney disease and carpal tunnel syndrome presents with two weeks of worsening dyspnea on exertion. At baseline, he is an avid cyclist and noticed he can now only bike ½ mile when before he could bike extended distances. In addition, he noted abdominal swelling and palpitations. Vitals signs showed mild tachycardia, irregularly irregular rhythm, and no clear evidence of volume overload. Labs demonstrated acute on chronic kidney disease, an elevated NT-proBNP and elevated troponin. ECG demonstrated atrial flutter with variable conduction block. TTE demonstrated marked concentric left ventricular hypertrophy with preserved ejection fraction, biatrial enlargement, reduced global longitudinal strain with apical sparing, and bicuspid aortic valve with moderate aortic stenosis. Further diagnostics revealed normal serum kappa/lambda light chains and PYP scan was positive. Patient underwent EMB which demonstrated ATTR amyloid deposition and genetic screening did not show mutations commonly associated with hereditary ATTR. 

Case Media

ABCD

A. CXR: Stable mild enlargement of the cardiac silhouette; mildly tortuous aorta. Lung fields are clear, no pneumonia, pleural effusions, or pneumothorax.B. AV continuous wave DopplerC. Strain ImageD. Tc-99 PYP Scan

TTE 1

TTE 4

TTE 2

TTE 5

TTE 3

TC-99 PYP Scan

Strain video 1

Strain video 2

Strain video 3

Episode Schematics & Teaching

Created by Dr. Karan DesaiCreated by Dr. Carine Hamo (updated 9.2020)Click to enlarge!

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