Cardiac Amyloidosis Program

Amyloidosis refers to a group of diseases caused by deposits of abnormal proteins, known as amyloid, in one or more organs of the body. Deposition of amyloid in the heart is known as cardiac amyloidosis or amyloid heart disease.

The Cardiac Amyloidosis Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is the only program in the country devoted exclusively to cardiac amyloidosis. Our program—featuring a multidisciplinary team of experts—specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of this rare and often misdiagnosed condition. We are committed to educating patients and physicians and spreading awareness.

Led by Rodney H. Falk, MD, widely recognized as a cardiac amyloidosis expert, our team includes specialists in cardiology, cardiac pathology, gastroenterology, hematology, nephrology, neurology and cardiac research – all Harvard Medical School faculty with extensive experience in cardiac amyloidosis. We work closely with patients and referring physicians, providing the highest standard of medical and supportive care, combined with cutting-edge research and clinical trials. An international referral site, the Cardiac Amyloidosis program is part of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart and Vascular Center and is located within the state-of-the-art Shapiro Cardiovascular Center.

Learn more about cardiac amyloidosis, including symptoms, diagnosis and treatment.

Make an Appointment

Call: Dr. Falk at (617) 525-7053
Email: rfalk@partners.org
Fax: (617) 264-5265
Hours: 8AM-4PM, Monday-Friday

Refer a Patient

Referring physicians can refer a patient online or call (857) 307-4000 to learn how to refer a patient to the Cardiac Amyloidosis Program.

Research and Clinical Trials

The Cardiac Amyloidosis Program is conducting research into a variety of aspects of amyloidosis:

• We recently enrolled the largest number of patients with transthyretin-related amyloidosis in a pilot study of a new drug specifically designed to stop the progression of this disease.
• Ronglih Liao, PhD, has shed new light on the manner in which light chains cause cardiac damage.
• At the April 2010 International Symposium held in Rome, we presented papers on the prevalence of senile systemic amyloidosis, the safety of endomyocardial biopsy for the diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis, and the effectiveness and outcome of treating atrial rhythm disturbances in amyloidosis.
• The use of highly sensitive echocardiographic techniques for distinguishing cardiac amyloidosis from other forms of heart disease and the evaluation of coronary blood flow in both AL and TTR amyloidosis.
• New radiotracers for the diagnosis of systemic amyloidosis are soon to be evaluated and treatments for TTR amyloid are a continued active research pursuit.