In an interview with Rare Disease Report, Mathew Maurer, MD, Arnold and Arlene Professor of Cardiology at Columbia University, explained the standard of care and current management tactics for individuals with hATTR Amyloidosis.
Maurer: The standard treatment, or I should say management for this condition, is very different than what we hope treatment will be. Currently we manage the condition and the manifestations by treating the symptoms of, if you will, heart failure. We encourage patients to stay physically active, avoid smoking, adhere to a relatively low sodium diet, assuming they have a clinical syndrome and heart failure which means they're swollen and full of water, and we also encourage self-management skills. For instance, weigh yourself on a daily basis because when you have some dietary indiscretion, eat a little extra salt, you can gain a lot of fluid pretty quickly and that can really exacerbate your baseline symptom. Those are kind of management strategies - none of them are treating the underlying condition.