Value of tissue Doppler-derived Tei index and two-dimensional speckle tracking imaging derived longitudinal strain on predicting outcome of patients with light-chain cardiac amyloidosis

Prognosis of patients with light-chain cardiac amyloidosis (AL-CA) is poor. Speckle tracking imaging (STI) derived longitudinal deformation parameters and Doppler-derived left ventricular (LV) Tei index are valuable predictors of outcome in patients with AL-CA. We estimated the prognostic utility of Tei index and deformation parameters in 58 comprehensively phenotyped patients with AL-CA after a median follow-up of 365 days (quartiles 121, 365 days). The primary end point was all-cause mortality. 19 (33%) patients died during follow-up. Tei index (0.89 ± 0.29 vs. 0.61 ± 0.16, p < 0.001) and E to global early diastolic strain rate ratio (E/GLSR(dias)) were higher while global longitudinal systolic strain (GLS(sys)) was lower in non-survivors than in survivors (all p < 0.05). Tei index, NYHA functional class, GLS(sys) and E/GLSR(dias) were independent predictors of all-cause mortality risk, and Tei index ≥0.9 (HR 7.01, 95% CI 2.43–20.21, p < 0.001) was the best predictor of poor outcome. Combining Tei index and GLS(sys) yielded the best results on predicting death within 1 year (100% with Tei index ≥0.9 and GLS(sys) ≤13%) or survival (95% with Tei index ≤0.9 and GLS(sys) ≥13%). We conclude that 1-year mortality risk in AL-CA patients can be reliably predicted using Tei index or deformation parameters, with combined analysis offering best performance.