Revisiting secondary amyloidosis for an inadequately investigated feature: dyslipidemia

Secondary amyloidosis is the most frequent form of the systemic amyloidosis around the world. Data on frequency and nature of dyslipidemia in patients with secondary amyloidosis are not conclusive. We evaluated the lipid abnormalities and their association with clinical and laboratory characteristics of the patients with secondary amyloidosis. The reports of the kidney biopsies performed in our hospital were reviewed. Clinical and laboratory data of the patients with biopsy-proven secondary amyloidosis were analyzed retrospectively. A total of 102 patients were diagnosed as having secondary amyloidosis. Familial Mediterranean fever was the leading cause of secondary amyloidosis accounting for 42.2 % of the cases. The most frequent indication for kidney biopsy was the nephrotic range proteinuria. The most common clinical and laboratory characteristics at the time of the diagnosis were edema, proteinuria and impaired renal function. The frequency of the nephrotic range proteinuria and microscopic hematuria were 75.5 and 18.6 %, respectively. Dyslipidemia was found in 88 % of the cases. Serum lipids significantly correlated with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), but not with serum albumin or urine protein levels. We demonstrated that majority of the patients with secondary amyloidosis had serum lipid abnormalities. Dyslipidemia was closely associated with GFR in a manner that patients with advanced stage kidney disease had lower serum lipid levels.