hATTR-PN

Advocacy starts with patients and caregivers. It’s the husband who asks the nurse, “Could the lightheadedness mean something more?” It’s the daughter who brings journal articles to her mother’s doctor. It’s the patient who, despite fatigue, shares their story again and again so that the next person might be diagnosed sooner.

Specialists in Scandinavia have updated the Kumamoto scale, a tool long used to monitor the progression of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTRv), a group of diseases that includes familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP). The revised scale introduces clearer definitions and more precise scoring for symptoms and organ involvement, while still being practical…

People with early-stage familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) cost society more than twice as much as symptom-free carriers of disease-causing genetic mutations, largely due to higher medical needs and lost productivity at work, according to a study in Spain. “Not only early-stage [FAP] patients, but also asymptomatic carriers, are generating…

In my work as an advocate for the New Zealand Amyloidosis Patients Association (NZAPA), I meet many people with ATTR amyloidosis and their caregivers. I still recall the first diagnosed patient who reached out to me after the charity was established in 2020. We’d just launched NZAPA’s Facebook…

Early genetic screening for people with unexplained nerve damage, or neuropathy, may help uncover undiagnosed cases of familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP), allowing faster access to treatment. In a study from France, 1% of 400 adults with neuropathy of unknown origin were found to have a FAP-causing mutation, even…

A Phase 3 clinical trial testing Intellia Therapeutics’ gene-editing therapy nexiguran ziclumeran (nex-z) in adults with familial amyloid neuropathy (FAP) is ahead of its planned enrollment schedule, with recruitment now expected to be completed in the first half of 2026. That’s according to a press release from…

Using a small sample of tissue from skin — obtained via a skin biopsy — can help diagnose familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) early by looking for the presence of disease-causing toxic amyloid deposits and measuring the number of small nerve fibers in the outermost layer of a person’s skin.

Kidney disease is an underrecognized complication of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTRv) — a group of diseases that includes familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) — but may be effectively controlled with a class of medications known as siRNA therapies, among them Onpattro (patisiran) and Amvuttra (vutrisiran). That’s according to an observational study,…

Neuropathy, or nerve-related pain, is more prevalent than previously reported in people with the V142I mutation of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTRv), a study found. Familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP), a clinical form of ATTRv, typically involves progressive nerve damage. V142I, the most common ATTRv mutation in the U.S., has traditionally…

An automated message from LinkedIn recently reminded me that it’s been five years since I started my role as a patient advocate at the New Zealand Amyloidosis Patients Association (NZAPA). I didn’t become an advocate because it was a lifelong ambition, but rather out of necessity. My late husband,…