ABSTRACT
The paper presents the morphoclinical picture in cardiac amyloidosis to a 50 years old man admitted at Iasi Cardiology Center with progressive chronic cardiac failure, the patient having recent history of restrictive cardiomyopathy. It was made a complete cardiovascular evaluation including the right cardiac catheterization for endomyocardial biopsy. The biopsy specimens were fixed in buffered 10 % formalin, followed by routine paraffin embedding, and were stained with haematoxylin-eosin, elastic Van Gieson and sulphated blue Alcian for amyloid evaluation. The amyloid deposits were evidentiated in the interstitium and into vascular walls of the biopsy, pointing the importance of the morphological exam for amyloidosis diagnosis.
Subject(s)
Amyloidosis/pathology , Cardiomyopathy, Restrictive/pathology , Myocardium/pathology , Amyloidosis/diagnosis , Biopsy , Cardiac Catheterization , Cardiomyopathy, Restrictive/diagnosis , Echocardiography , Electrocardiography , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Pericarditis, Constrictive/pathologyABSTRACT
The amyloid deposition in skeletal muscle is well known but a rare occurrence. The study reflects the morphoclinical picture in cardiac amyloidosis in a 51 years old woman, having progressive cardiac failure and sinus node disease. A complete clinical evaluation of the patient showed a concomitant malignancy, plasma-cell myeloma. Muscle-cutaneous biopsy and a sulfated blue alcian staining was routinely performed to screen for amyloid. Histologically, amyloid was confirmed by the presence of deposits in the interstitium around perivascular region, or rarely, in the endomysial region. Focally, the muscles showed a small group atrophy and scattered regenerating muscle fibers and some degenerating myofibers. Generally, is known that prevalence rate of amyloid myopathy in muscle biopsy specimens is low (0.004%), and, as in our case, only a minority of patients have multiple myeloma, as well.
