Everything depends on the type of amyloidosis
Type of amyloidosis
AL Amyloidosis
In the immunology laboratory, we can detect if there is an excessive amount of immunoglobulin in the blood and if so, how much. We can also detect the amount of immunoglobulin light chains in the blood and whether they are present in the urine. To do this, we use protein migration techniques using an electrical field (electrophoresis) and ‘immunological’ techniques: immunofixation, immunonephelometry. These further examinations help the diagnostic process and the treatment which then follows. For treatment to be successful, the amount of immunoglobulin and/or free light chains must be reduced.
Senile or ‘wild type’ Amyloidosis
Diagnosing senile amyloidosis is often a process of elimination for patients who suffer from heart failure and concentrated cardiac hypertrophy and it can only be confirmed once the possibility of other amyloidosis types has been eliminated.
Giving a definite diagnosis of senile amyloidosis is only possible using a myocardial biopsy to locate the transthyretin amyloid deposits. However, performing a biopsy on elderly patients has ethichal implications as it can lead to complications (myocardial perforation, lesions on the tricuspid valve).
Histological evidence of amyloid deposits in systemic senile amyloidosis can be obtained through biopsies of non-cardiac tissues (salivary glands, carpal tunnels, the rectum, abdominal fats) or subcutaneous fats. However, non-cardiac biopsies for systemic senile amyloidosis are less reliable than for other types of amyloidosis and so a negative result does not always mean that this can be ruled out as a possibility.
Senile amyloidosis can also be found in the aforementioned tissues without there being any damage to the heart. However, this does not mean that cardiac problems will not occur later on. Patients whose synovial biopsies show no cardiopathy at the time of surgical treatment for their carpal tunnel treatment but do show TTR amyloidosis, can develop cardiopathies several years later. Moreover, patients who have been treated for carpal tunnel syndrome are often found to have systemic senile amyloidosis four or five years later.
Below is the diagnostic approach for a patient suspected of having amyloidosis.
