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Limited English proficiency (LEP) is defined as individuals in whom English is not the primary language and who have limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand the English language. Cardiovascular (CV) team members routinely encounter language barriers in their practice. These barriers have a significant impact on the quality of CV care that patients with LEP receive. Despite evidence demonstrating the negative association between language barriers and health disparities, the impact on CV care is insufficiently known. In addition, older adults with CV disease and LEP are facing increasing risk of adverse events when complex medical information is not optimally delivered. Overcoming language barriers in CV care will need a thoughtful approach. Although well recognized, the initial step will be to continue to highlight the importance of language needs identification and appropriate use of professional interpreter services. In parallel, a health system-level approach is essential that describes initiatives and key policies to ensure a high-level quality of care for a growing LEP population. This review aims to present the topic of LEP during the CV care of older adults, for continued awareness along with practical considerations for clinical use and directions for future research.

Additional file 1: Table 1. Most frequent genotypes recorded at enrollment in the overall population.

Additional file 3: Table 3. Clinical characteristics and patient-reported outcomes in symptomatic patients according to genotype category.

Additional file 4: Table 4. Neurologic findings in symptomatic patients with a predominantly neurologic or mixed phenotype.

Deprescribing, an integral component of a continuum of good prescribing practices, is the process of medication withdrawal or dose reduction to correct or prevent medication-related complications, improve outcomes, and reduce costs. Deprescribing is particularly applicable to the commonly encountered multimorbid older adult with cardiovascular disease and concomitant geriatric conditions such as polypharmacy, frailty, and cognitive dysfunction-a combination rarely addressed in current clinical practice guidelines. Triggers to deprescribe include present or expected adverse drug reactions, unnecessary polypharmacy, and the need to align medications with goals of care when life expectancy is reduced. Using a framework to deprescribe, this review addresses the rationale, evidence, and strategies for deprescribing cardiovascular and some noncardiovascular medications.

Transthyretin amyloidosis is a rare, life-threatening disease resulting from aggregation and deposition of transthyretin amyloid fibrils in various tissues. There are 2 predominate phenotypic presentations of the disease: transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy, which primarily affects the peripheral nerves, and transthyretin cardiomyopathy (TTR-CM), which primarily affects the heart. However, there is a wide overlap with symptoms at presentation and disease course being highly variable and influenced by the underlying transthyretin mutation, age of the affected individual, sex, and geographic location. Treatment of transthyretin amyloidosis is typically focused on symptom management. Although tafamidis has been shown to delay neurologic progression of transthyretin familial amyloid polyneuropathy, there are no approved pharmacologic therapies shown to improve survival in TTR-CM. The natural history of TTR-CM is poorly characterized, which presents difficulties for the design of large-scale trials for new treatments. This review provides a brief overview of TTR-CM and the challenges of identifying clinically meaningful end points and study parameters to determine the efficacy of treatments for rare diseases. The design and rationale behind the ongoing phase 3 ATTR-ACT study (Tafamidis in Transthyretin Cardiomyopathy Clinical Trial), an international, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial, is also outlined. The ATTR-ACT study will provide important insight into the efficacy and safety of tafamidis for the treatment of TTR-CM. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier: NCT01994889.

BACKGROUND: Signs of cardiac transthyretin (TTR) amyloidosis (ATTR) in patients with echocardiographic increase in interventricular septal thickness (IVST) are lacking. OBJECTIVES: To identify clinical and ECG/echocardiographic signs associated with increased IVST in ATTR. METHODS: Analysis of patients with baseline echocardiography in the Transthyretin Amyloidosis Outcomes Survey (THAOS) registry (N=1682). Patients were categorised into IVST classes according to the American Society of Echocardiography classification adapted to gender (ie, normal, mild, moderate, severe); then into two combined IVST classes (normal-mild and moderate-severe). RESULTS: 425 patients were included: 336 with a TTR mutation (m-TTR) and 89 with wild-type TTR (WT-TTR). 72% were men. Median (25th, 75th centile) age was 62 (45, 72) years. Non-Val30Met and WT-TTR were frequent in moderate (41% and 35%) and severe (50% and 33%) IVST classes. Median IVST was 15?mm (14, 16) (moderate) and 20?mm (18, 22) (severe). In the combined moderate-severe class, 85% of patients were ?55?years of age; 81% were men; 86% had blood pressure