Effective Treatment For Amyloidosis
A multidisciplinary team of medical professionals including Hematologist, oncologists, Pulmonologist, Nephrologist, Neurologists, Cardiologists, and Gastroenterologist, devises a plan for the treatment of Amyloidosis patients. The key factors which have the utmost value are the condition of the patient, the overall health, and the stage of amyloidosis.
For the anticipation of the classification of Light Chian Amyloidosis, doctors nowadays use cardiac biomarkers. The cardiac biomarkers like troponin-T (cTnT) and B-type natriuretic peptide indicate the prognostic level of monoclonal plasma cells. Through the indication of the difference between involving and uninvolving free light chains (FLC), the doctors can determine the extent of heart involvement.
The complete treatment or cure of the disease is not known. The treatments available can control and suppress the progressing symptoms of the disease. The treatment planning ponders on the level of organ damage as a result of amyloidosis. The most common approach is the use of steroids to control the problems associated with amyloidosis.
The hematology reports indicate plasma-cell associated attributes like circulating plasma cells, plasma cell index, marrow plasma cell concentration, and FLC. These indicators will pave the path for devising a sound treatment strategy. Following are the handiest treatments which are available nowadays:
- Chemotherapy
- Stem cell transplantation
- Targeted therapy
- Surgery
Chemotherapy:
The main goal of chemotherapy is to reduce the malignancy caused by abnormal cells or antibodies. The abnormal cells in the blood are the targets through a shot or intravenous (IV) injection of drugs. This therapy gives a little longer functioning of the damaging organs. The most frequent drugs for the cure of amyloidosis are Cytoxan, Alkeran, Neoxan, Prednisone, and dexamethasone. The patient’s therapy might sometimes include either a single drug or a combination of multiple drugs.
There might have some side-effects of chemotherapy:
- Anemia
- Fatigue
- Nausea
- Vomiting
The side-effects mentioned above are controllable and are not long-lasting in most cases. But these drugs can also cause irreparable damage to some organs, which stays longer. Although Anemia is the condition that can cause worry. As the drugs that target abnormal cells also cause damage to the surrounding healthy red blood cells. This damage results in lower hemoglobin, which ultimately results in lower uptake of oxygen by red blood cells. So the body becomes deficient in oxygen, which causes tiredness and fatigue.