Sonographic signs of amyloidosis
A P Barreiros1, G Otto, A Ignee
1Department of Internal Medicine I, Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany.
Introduction:
Amyloidosis is a rare group of diseases with a variety of symptoms that occurs not only in multimorbid elderly but also in young patients. However, sonographic signs of amyloidosis have not been described so far.
Patients And Methods:
30 patients with different forms of amyloidosis (19 patients with TTR-amyloidosis (familial amyloid Polyneuropathy [FAP]), 11 patients with other forms of systemic amyloidosis) were sonographically evaluated in a standardised fashion. In all patients amyloidosis was histologically verified.
Results:
Typical signs of cardiac amyloidosis were myocardial thickness, pericardial effusion, pleural effusion and typical echorich subendocardial depositions. Signs of kidney infiltration were stage dependent and rather unspecific. Spontaneous subcapsular haemorrhages were the typical signs of liver and spleen infiltration. Intestinal affection was characterised by patchy-like inhomogeneous depositions. Rare sites of amyloidal affection could also be verified, e. g. gallbladder and thyroid infiltration.
Discussion:
Typical sonographic signs of amyloidosis could be found in the heart, bowel wall, liver, spleen, gallbladder and thyroid and were illustrated as pictorial assays.
Related Concept Videos
Amyloid Fibrils
Amyloid deposits were observed as early as 1639 in the liver and the spleen. In 1854, Rudolph Virchow performed iodine staining, normally used to...
Amyloid Fibrils
Amyloid deposits were observed as early as 1639 in the liver and the spleen. In 1854, Rudolph Virchow performed iodine staining, normally used to...
Ultrasonography
During an ultrasonography procedure, a handheld device called a...
Imaging Studies II: Ultrasonography
