SECONDARY AMYLOIDOSIS FROM LONG-STANDING BACTERIAL-ENDOCARDITIS

Survival of patients with increasingly complex congenital heart diseas e has produced a population of children and adolescents who are suscep tible to subacute bacterial endocarditis (SEE). We report a child whos e endocarditis went unrecognised, and who developed amyloidosis. Asymp tomatic proteinuria, haematuria and renal impairment are occasionally seen in SEE and usually indicate glomerulonephritis, Amyloidosis shoul d also be suspected in children with long-standing bacterial endocardi tis with proteinuria or other evidence of renal impairment, especially if associated with organomegaly. The diagnosis is made by renal biops y.