Background and Aims: Patients with light-chain cardiac amyloidosis (AL-CA) are characterized by high levels of serum carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA 125). However, studies have not explored the correlation between CA 125 and AL-CA. The aim of this study was to explore the clinical implications of an increase in CA 125 in patients with AL-CA.Methods and Results: A total of 95 patients diagnosed with AL-CA at the Second Xiangya Hospital were enrolled in this study. Out of the 95 patients with AL-CA, 57 (60%) patients had elevated serum CA 125 levels. The mean age was 59.7 ± 10.0 years with 44 (77.2%) men in the high serum CA 125 group, and 61.8 ± 9.6 years with 28 (73.7%) men in the normal group. Patients with high CA 125 showed higher rates of polyserositis (79.3% vs. 60.5%, p = 0.03), higher levels of hemoglobin (117.4 ± 21.9 g/L vs. 106.08 ± 25.1 g/L, p = 0.03), serum potassium (4.11 ± 0.47 mmol/L vs. 3.97 ± 0.40 mmol/L, p = 0.049), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (3.0 ± 1.6 mmol/L vs. 2.3 ± 1.10 mmol/L, p = 0.01), and cardiac troponin T (96.0 pg/mL vs. 91.9 pg/mL, p = 0.005). The median overall survival times for patients with high or normal serum CA 125 were 5 and 25 months, respectively (p = 0.045). Multivariate Cox hazard analysis showed that treatment without chemotherapy (HR 1.694, 95% CI 1.121–2.562, p = 0.012) and CA 125 (HR 1.002, 95% CI 1.000–1.004, p = 0.020) was correlated with high all-cause mortality. The time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (t-ROC) curve showed that the prediction accuracy of CA 125 was not inferior to that of cardiac troponin T, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) based on the area under the curve.Conclusions: CA 125 is a novel prognostic predictor. High serum CA 125 values are correlated with low overall survival, and the accuracy of predicting prognosis is similar to that of traditional biomarkers in AL-CA.

Aims: The level of serum carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA 125) elevated is a common finding in patients with cardiac amyloidosis in clinical practice. It is unclear whether CA 125 is correlated with cardiac amyloidosis. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the clinical implications of CA 125 elevation in patients with cardiac amyloidosis.Methods and Results: We enrolled 101 patients diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis at the Second Xiangya Hospital, 41 patients with acute decompensated heart failure (AHF) and 39 patients with multiple myeloma (MM) who were confirmed to have no cardiac amyloidosis served as control group, respectively. In 101 patients with cardiac amyloidosis, 58 (57%) patients had elevated serum CA 125 levels, which the mean age was 61.2 ± 11.4 years. Patients with high CA 125 were more likely to present with polyserositis ( 79.3% vs 60.5%, p = 0.03) , higher levels of hemoglobin (117.22 ± 21.87 g/L vs. 106.07 ± 25.15 g/L, p = 0.01), serum potassium (4.17 ± 0.49 mmol/L vs. 3.98 ± 0.41 mmol/L, p = 0.05), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (2.98 ± 1.65 mmol/L vs. 2.22 ± 1.10 mmol/L, p = 0.01), and cardiac troponin T (115 pg/mL vs. 59.52 pg/mL, p = 0.005) . The serum CA 125 levels were significantly higher in cardiac amyloidosis than AHF and MM. The median overall survival for patients with elevated and normal serum CA125 were 5 and 20 months, respectively (p = 0.012). According to multivariate Cox hazard analysis, CA 125 (HR 1.002, 95%CI 1.000-1.004, p = 0.020) contributed to all-cause mortality. The time-dependent receiver operating characteristic was used to reflect the accuracy of different biomarkers in predicting overall survival at various time points by the area under the curve (AUC). CA 125 has no worse prediction accuracy than cardiac troponin T, NT-proBNP and LDH according to the AUC.Conclusions: The prevalence of elevated serum CA 125 levels is more than 50% in patients with cardiac amyloidosis. As an independent prognostic predictor, highly serum CA 125 values indicated the lower overall survival and the accuracy of predicting prognosis was not inferior to the other biomarkers.

ObjectiveAfter effective control of the 2019 Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in China, how to reopen the hospital and avoid the outbreak in the hospital is a problem that needs to be carefully considered. The aim of this descriptive study is to share the experience of prevention and emergency management in our hospital and cardiac intensive care units (CCU) when medical services were reopened after COVID-19 was under control.Methods and ResultsWe conducted a retrospective, descriptive and single-centre study. Management strategy and data were collected from the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Hunan and CCU. We have implemented some strategies to prevent the prevalence of covid-19 in hospitals while ensuring that more critical cardiac patients can be admitted to CCU. These measures are summarized as follows: 1. gradually expanding medical services; 2. risk classification and routine strict screening of patients admitted to CCU; 3. strengthening the management of hospitalized patients, accompanying person and medical staffs; 4. strengthening screening and isolation of suspected cases of inpatients; 5. other measures such as strengthening training of medical workers, protective equipment and environmental management, and so on.ConclusionWe share the experience of prevention and emergency management in our hospital and CCU when medical services were reopened after effective control of the COVID-19 epidemic and hope it will be helpful for cardiologist or critical care physician all around the world to continue to provide critical care in a safe and orderly manner.

Background Light-chain cardiac amyloidosis (AL-CA) has been highly valued in developed countries, but in developing countries, the recognition and diagnosis of this condition is still limited. There are currently few reports on a large number of Chinese patients with AL-CA. The present study aimed to report real-world clinical characteristics and prognosis of AL-CA in China. Methods and results Consecutive patients with AL-CA diagnosed at the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University between June 2012 and September 2020 were reviewed. A total of 170 patients with AL-CA have been recruited, whose mean ages were 60.81 ± 10.46. 70.59% of the patients were male. They were from eight provinces in southern China, 55.7% were referred patients, and 37.3% had been misdiagnosed previously. 64 (37.6%) patients received chemotherapy. The median survival time for patients with AL-CA was 8.00 months, and survival time for patients who received chemotherapy was 13.00 months, which was significantly longer than that of patients with palliative treatment (13.00 vs 6.00, p = 0.004). Conclusions Although clinicians have improved their understanding of AL-CA in recent years, the prognosis of AL-CA is still poor, and the misdiagnosis rate and missed diagnosis rate are still very high in China. It is imperative to improve the recognition and early diagnosis of this condition, which may require multidisciplinary collaboration among cardiologists, hematologists and nephrologists.