Patient outcomes in light chain (AL) amyloidosis: The clock is ticking from symptoms to diagnosis

Introduction: Symptomology of AL amyloidosis can be vague, with a broad range of manifestations and potential etiologies. We sought to determine whether time from initial patient-reported symptom onset to diagnosis was associated with survival.

Methods: The Boston University Amyloidosis Patient Database was queried for patients with AL amyloidosis who presented to the Center for initial evaluation from 2010 to 2015.

Results: A total of 324 patients with AL amyloidosis were evaluated for initial evaluation. The median time to diagnosis from initial symptom onset was 7.1 months (range, 0-61). At data cutoff, 60.2% (n = 195) of patients were alive; of those, the majority were diagnosed <6 months from initial symptoms (52.3%, n = 102). In contrast, time to diagnosis from symptom onset was >6 months in 63.6% (n = 82) of patients who did not survive at the time of data cutoff (P = .0005). Survival analysis of time from diagnosis to death or data cutoff stratified by time from patient-reported symptom onset to diagnosis (<6, 6-12, and >12 months) showed significant differences among groups (P = .001). Additionally, multivariable regression demonstrated that an increase in time from self-reported symptom onset to diagnosis was significantly associated with an increased risk of death (HR = 1.02, 95% CI = 1.01-1.04, P = .002).

Conclusion: These results support the importance of early diagnosis for patients with AL amyloidosis.