Carol Boyers' carpal tunnel history raised some red flags for her doctor. After three surgeries on her right hand, he suggested a biopsy.
“Just a small little trigger finger,” Boyer said. “And from that biopsy on a finger, they found this stuff was in my heart. It is kind of amazing.”
That “stuff" was an abnormal protein called amyloid, which can cause a disease called amyloidosis. Doctors said the disease occurs when these proteins get in tissues and organs, leading to stiffness and dysfunction.
Buildup in the heart can lead to arrhythmias and heart failure.
“We were really surprised,” Boyer said. “I had no earthly idea anything was happening, because I never had any symptoms of it.”
Dr. Scott Feitell, director of heart failure at Rochester General Hospital, said about 10% of bilateral carpal tunnel cases are caused by this specific protein.
“The amyloid, for some reason, likes to hang out in the heart and deposit within the heart tissue,” Feitell said. “And so, you find signs of heart failure.”
Over the past decade, researchers have learned that the effects of amyloids are more common “than we ever envisioned," he said.
“A lot of diseases and conditions that we would attribute to either old age or other causes, when you actually dig a little deeper, we found out that amyloid is a driving force behind it,” Feitell said.
But Feitell said those with carpal tunnel should not panic. There’s a strong likelihood that it’s not caused by this specific protein. If so, these cases, he said, are very treatable.
Boyer said she now takes one shot every three months to manage the disease.
“There's a whole lot of people, whole lot worse off than I am, and I'm just so thankful they caught it when they did,” Boyer said. “I'm blessed.”
