BACKGROUND Primary amyloidosis of the breast is an unusual benign disease that mostly occurs in postmenopausal elderly women. Amyloidosis is the deposition of amorphous protein within tissues. Breast biopsy is necessary to make a definite diagnosis in order to avoid unnecessary surgical methods. Localized primary amyloidosis of the breast has a good prognosis. However, secondary amyloidosis is ...

SEE PAGE 126 C ardiac amyloidosis (CA) is part of a systemic disease characterized by the deposition of amyloid in multiple tissues. Although the heart is often the predominant organ involved in systemic amyloidosis, this is not always the case, as CA of varying severity may be present when a patient with amyloidosis presents with symptoms related to another organ. Thus, in familial amyloidosis...

Hereditary amyloidosis is, in general, a systemic condition related to multiple organ system involvement by beta-structured protein deposits. As such, it often mimics the more common forms of systemic amyloidosis: immunoglobulin light chain (AL, primary) and reactive (AA, secondary). The challenge diagnostically is to recognize hereditary amyloidosis as a distinct entity and then to determine t...

A 54 year old man had generalised systemic amyloidosis secondary to bilateral basal bronchiectasis of the lungs. He died after an unexpected asystolic cardiac arrest. Necropsy showed extensive amyloid deposition in the cardiac conduction system.

Seminal vesicle (SV) amyloidosis is a well-documented histological entity, but it is observed infrequently. Its incidence is on the rise, which is probably related to the increasing use of prostate biopsies to investigate patients with elevated serum prostate-specific antigen levels. Here, we report seven cases of incidental SV amyloidosis over a 3-year period and consider their relationship to...

Severe loss of visual acuity due to vitreous opacities may result from haemorrhages, inflammatory and degenerative conditions, tumour cells, or amyloidthe last being rare (Duke-Elder, I969; Jaffe, I969). It is important, however, to recognize amyloid disease as being a cause of vitreous opacities, because most previously reported cases have been patients with familial amyloidosis, a systemic di...

Amyloid is an eosinophilic substance which appears “apple-green birefringence” in Congo red stained tissue sections under polarized light. This standard histological analysis is supported with immunochemistry technic using specific antibodies directed against most of the common human amyloid proteins, and also amyloid proteins can be identified with characteristic fibrillar appearance by electr...

Amyloidosis refers to a group of protein misfolding diseases characterized by deposition of a particular amyloid protein in various organs and tissues of animals and humans. Although there are other components present in the deposit, the amyloid protein fibril is the main component of the amyloid substance. The amyloid substance differs in protein composition depending upon the types of amyloid...

Amyloidosis is a rare disease with an incidence of approximately 6–10 cases per million person years. It is defined as tissue deposition of fibrils consisting of different types and weight of normal serum proteins’ subunits. Amyloidosis disease can involve different organs depending on the subtype. Amyloidosis frequently affects the heart, kidneys, gastrointestinal organs and nervous system. Am...

Introduction Systemic reactive (AA) amyloidosis represents the most important complication within TNF receptor associated periodic syndrome (TRAPS), familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) and other autoinflammatory syndromes, progressively leading to endstage renal failure. The homozygous condition of the serum amyloid A (SAA) variant SAA1.1 is significantly associated with the occurrence of AA amy...