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Frailty and caregiver relationship quality in older patients diagnosed with transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis

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Abstract

Aim of the study was to explore frailty and quality of the relationship with the caregiver in a cohort of older patients with transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CA). Sixty-eight consecutive ATTR-CA patients were recruited and assessed for frailty, depressive symptoms, quality of the relationship in terms of social support, or conflict toward caregivers, New York Heart Association Class (NYHA), and National Amyloid Center score (NAC Score) for grading disease severity. Results showed that 10% of patients were frail. Depressive symptoms were present in 46% of patients. Regression analyses showed that both mFI and depression were associated with worse perception of social support, and that mFI and NAC score were associated with higher levels of conflict perceived in the caregivers’ relationship. Overall, the mFI score was associated with worse perceived social support and caregiver relationship quality. Tertiary care heart failure clinics should actively support the patient–caregiver relationship to improve quality of life.

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Author notes

  1. Carlo Fumagalli and Martina Smorti equally contributed to the manuscript.

  2. Andrea Ungar and Francesco Cappelli share co-senior authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy

    Carlo Fumagalli & Raffaele Marfella

  2. Cardiomyopathy Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy

    Carlo Fumagalli, Alessia Argirò, Giacomo Credi & Iacopo Olivotto

  3. Department of Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Martina Smorti & Francesca Pozza

  4. Department of Humanities, University of Urbino, 61029, Urbino, Italy

    Lucia Ponti

  5. Tuscan Regional Amyloidosis Centre, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy

    Lucia Ponti, Alessia Argirò, Federico Perfetto & Francesco Cappelli

  6. IV Internal Medicine Division, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy

    Federico Perfetto

  7. Division of Interventional Structural Cardiology, Cardiothoracovascular Department, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy

    Carlo Di Mario & Francesco Cappelli

  8. Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Niccolò Marchionni

  9. Meyer Children Hospital, Florence, Italy

    Iacopo Olivotto

  10. Geriatric Intensive Care Unit, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Andrea Ungar

Authors
  1. Carlo Fumagalli
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  2. Martina Smorti
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  3. Lucia Ponti
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  4. Francesca Pozza
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  5. Alessia Argirò
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  6. Giacomo Credi
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  7. Carlo Di Mario
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  8. Raffaele Marfella
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  9. Niccolò Marchionni
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  10. Iacopo Olivotto
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  11. Federico Perfetto
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  12. Andrea Ungar
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  13. Francesco Cappelli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucia Ponti.

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Conflict of interest

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work and have no conflict of interests to disclose.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the local Ethics Committee (CEAVC; protocol number 19476_OSS/2021).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Fumagalli, C., Smorti, M., Ponti, L. et al. Frailty and caregiver relationship quality in older patients diagnosed with transthyretin cardiac amyloidosis. Aging Clin Exp Res 35, 1363–1367 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-023-02419-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-023-02419-6

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