Study Authors: Keyur B. Shah, Anit K. Mankad, Adam Castano, Olakunle O. Akinboboye, Phillip B. Duncan, Icilma V. Fergus, Mathew S. Maurer

Transthyretin-related cardiac amyloidosis is a progressive infiltrative cardiomyopathy that mimics hypertensive and hypertrophic heart disease and often goes undiagnosed. In the United States, the hereditary form disproportionately afflicts black Americans, who when compared with whites with wild-type transthyretin amyloidosis, a phenotypically similar condition, present with more advanced disease despite having a noninvasive method for early identification (genetic testing). Although reasons for this are unclear, this begs to consider the inadequate access to care, societal factors, or a biological basis.

View the complete abstract in Circulation: Heart Failure, June 2016, Volume 9