Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of spleen in diagnosis of generalized amyloidosis

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of the spleen was performed on 18 patients shown to have amyloid deposits in other organs and on 17 control patients being investigated for proteinuria. Of the 18 patients with amyloid disease smears of splenic aspirate were positive in all cases, renal biopsy was positive in 16 out of 16 cases, and rectal biopsy was positive in seven out of 11 cases. None of the splenic smears were positive in the 17 control patients and no amyloid was found in the kidney in 15 of these patients on whom renal biopsy was performed. Splenic aspirate biopsy seems to be a simple and safe procedure for the diagnosis of amyloidosis. It is as accurate as renal biopsy and more accurate than rectal biopsy.