Primary amyloidosis with renal and myocardial failure.

In secondary amyloidosis the kidney is one of the commonest sites in the body for the deposition of amyloid, and renal failure is a common sequel. In primary amyloidosis renal involvement is less common and renal failure exceptional. Only four cases of renal failure due to primary amyloidosis have been described in the literature. The individual patients of Christian (1932), Gerber (1934), and Lindsay (1948) respectively were males whose average age at the time of death was 57 years. The average duration of their illness was three years. The case of Platt and Davson (1950) was in a 60-year-old woman whose illness lasted 18 months. It has been stated (Dahlin, 1950) that death from myocardial involvement occurs in roughly half the cases of systemic primary amyloidosis. The description that follows is concemed with the case of a middle-aged woman who developed progressive renal and myocardial failure due to primary amyloidosis.