Presentation and course of primary amyloidosis of the kidney

The case histories of nineteen patients who were seen in one renal unit between 1966 and 1978 and who were found to have primary amyloidosis are reviewed. Most were aged more than fifty and presented with the nephrotic syndrome without particular diagnostic features although electrophoresis of plasma and urine revealed abnormal immunoglobulins in a minority. Treatment was generally only symptomatic and most patients died within six months of diagnosis usually from renal failure. At the time of writing only the two patients treated by maintenance haemodialysis are still alive.