Deans' stroke musings: Tafamidis May Reduce Risk of Stroke in Patients With ATTR-CM and Atrial Fibrillation

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Tafamidis May Reduce Risk of Stroke in Patients With ATTR-CM and Atrial Fibrillation

A competent? doctor would know all about this from April 1, 2026!

IS YOUR DOCTOR COMPETENT AT ALL? Have you contacted your board of directors to initiate firings?

Tafamidis May Reduce Risk of Stroke in Patients With ATTR-CM and Atrial Fibrillation

The risk of ischemic stroke was 5.8% among patients with ATTR-CM and atrial fibrillation using tafamidis compared with 9.4% in patients not using the treatment.

Tafamidis treatment was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of ischemic stroke in patients with transthyretin-mediated amyloid cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM) and atrial fibrillation who were receiving direct oral anticoagulants.

This is according to a study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, and Boston Medical Center in Brighton, Massachusetts, the results of which will be presented at the American College of Cardiology 2026 Annual Scientific Session.

“These findings suggest tafamidis may protect this population beyond transthyretin stabilization alone,” the authors of the study said.

Read more about the treatment of ATTR-CM

To test the effect of tafamidis on stroke risk in patients with ATTR-CM and atrial fibrillation who are receiving direct oral anticoagulants, the team of researchers led by Reza Arsanjani, MD, analyzed a total of 4886 patients between 2014 and 2024. Of these, half (2443 patients) were using tafamidis, while the other half were not. The cohorts were well-matched, with a mean age of 79 years and a female representation of 16% in each group.

The researchers reported that the risk of ischemic stroke was 5.8% among patients using tafamidis compared with 9.4% in patients not using the treatment (P <.001).

ATTR-CM is a heart disease characterized by the formation of misfolded TTR protein fragments either due to a mutation in the gene coding for it or as a result of the normal aging process. The protein fragments form amyloid fibrils that accumulate in the interstitial space within the myocardium and cause damage.

Tafamidis is a selective TTR stabilizer, which stabilizes the tetramer structure of the protein, thereby decreasing protein dissociation and preventing protein aggregation and deposition in the myocardium. Currently, tafamidis is approved for the treatment of ATTR-CM in more than 55 countries, including the US.

Clinicians: Are your patients looking for news and insights on ATTR-CM? Refer them to ATTR-CM Companion.

This article originally appeared on Rare Disease Advisor.