Three men who had heart failure caused by the build-up of sticky, toxic proteins are now free of symptoms after their condition spontaneously reversed in an unprecedented case described by a team at UCL and the Royal Free Hospital.
The condition, a form of amyloidosis affecting the heart, is progressive and has until now been seen as irreversible, with half of patients dying within four years of diagnosis.
The new study, published as a letter in The New England Journal of Medicine, reports on three men, aged 68, 76 and 82, who were diagnosed with transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis but who later recovered. Their own reports of symptoms improving was confirmed by objective assessments including cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) scans showing that the build-up of amyloid proteins in the heart had cleared.
The researchers also found evidence of an immune response in the three men that specifically targeted amyloid. The amyloid-targeting antibodies were not found in other patients whose condition progressed as normal.
