Amyloidosis

Amyloidosis is considered rare but has an incidence similar to that of Hodg kin's disease and chronic granulocytic leukemia. The diagnosis should be co nsidered in any patient with unexplained nephrotic-range proteinuria, heart failure, peripheral neruopathy, or hepatomegaly. If a monoclonal protien i s found in a patient with any of these clinical presentations, a biopsy sho uld be performed and the specimen stained with Congo red. The simplest sour ce of diagnostic material is subcutaneous fat tissue. Treatment usually con sists of chemotherapy, which may be oral and low dose or high dose with ste m cell rescue.