What can we learn from a patient on dialysis for 42 years?

We performed autopsy on a 60-year-old Japanese man who had received dialysis for 42 years. He started on intermittent peritoneal dialysis in 1968, which was combined with hemodialysis in 1969. His serum calcium-phosphate balance and his blood pressure had been controlled well. Carpal tunnel syndrome occurred in 1984. Then lumbar spinal canal stenosis (SCS) occurred in 1997, followed by cervical SCS in 2000, destructive lumbar spondyloarthropathy (DSA) in 2002, and pathological fracture of the right femoral neck due to an enlarging bone cyst in 2006. All of his surgical specimens showed dialysis-related deposition of beta2MG amyloid (dialysis-related amyloidosis: DRA). Thereafter, lumbar and cervical spinal palsy progressed. In 2009, he developed severe paralytic ileus with dilatation of the sigmoid colon, and subsequently died of peritonitis due to necrotizing cholecystitis. Autopsy showed massive DRA deposits in his intestinal blood vessels and thickened spinal dura, resulting in the above-mentioned intestinal and spinal complications. However, his arterial tree, including the aorta and coronary arteries, showed very little atheroma. Strict control of the Ca-P balance and blood pressure may have prevented cardiovascular disease, while progress in dialysis technology delayed fatal complications of DRA and allowed this patient to survive on dialysis for 42 years.