Early improvement in cardiac function detected by Tissue Doppler and strain imaging after melphalan-dexamethasone therapy in a 51-year old subject with severe cardiac amyloidosis

We report the case of a 51-year old man with symptoms of heart failure due to severe cardiac amyloidosis, in whom treatment with melphalan and dexamethasone yielded significant improvement in clinical status and both systolic and diastolic left ventricular (LV) function over a 12-week follow-up. The improvement in LV performance was detected by Tissue Doppler (TD) and strain analysis, despite no changes in standard indices such as ejection fraction and Doppler pattern of mitral inflow. Color TD-derived myocardial velocity and deformation indices also revealed a reduction in intra-ventricular early diastolic asynchrony after therapy. In addition, an improvement in intra-ventricular systolic synchrony was detected by strain rate and strain, but not by color TD velocity imaging. These findings suggest that treatment with melphalan and dexamethasone may improve symptoms of heart failure and LV performance in subjects with cardiac amylodosis, and that TD and particularly strain imaging could represent useful techniques to monitor the effect of therapy on LV function in the follow-up of these patients.