What is Amyloidosis?

What is Amyloidosis?

• Amyloidosis: A rare group of metabolic disorders where a protein called amyloid accumulates in body organs and tissues where it can cause damage and is potentially fatal. Symptoms depend on the organs involved. There are numerous forms of the condition: primary amyloidosis, secondary amyloidosis, hemodialysis-associated amyloidosis and familial amyloidosis.
• Amyloidosis: A disease characterised by the deposition of amyloid in various organs of the body. It is generally considered that the amyloidoses share common pathogenic mechanisms which lead to protein fibril formation and deposition. These mechanisms may include structural, metabolic, genetic and environmental factors that may be common to all forms of amyloidosis. Primary amyloidosis, while the most common form of amyloidosis, is a sporadic disease and, therefore, can only be investigated on a case by case basis. Secondary (reactive) amyloidosis occurs in subjects with chronic inflammatory disease or cancer but factors which predict amyloid formation and which subject is going to be affected, are not readily apparent. Alzheimer disease, while very common in the aged population, is unpredictable except for those rare forms of familial Alzheimer disease with characterized mutations in specific genes. Hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis has generally been considered a rare disease and the original impetus to study the pathogenesis of this disease was because it represented a human model of systemic amyloidosis.
  Source - Diseases Database
• Amyloidosis: a disorder characterized by deposit of amyloid in organs or tissues; often secondary to chronic rheumatoid arthritis or tuberculosis or multiple myeloma.
  Source - WordNet 2.1

Amyloidosis is listed as a "rare disease" by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This means that Amyloidosis, or a subtype of Amyloidosis, affects less than 200,000 people in the US population.
Source - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Ophanet, a consortium of European partners, currently defines a condition rare when it affects 1 person per 2,000. They list Amyloidosis as a "rare disease".
Source - Orphanet

Amyloidosis: Introduction

Types of Amyloidosis:

Types of Amyloidosis:

• Primary amyloidosis
• Dialysis-related amyloidosis
• more types...»

Broader types of Amyloidosis:

• Blood conditions
• more types...»

How many people get Amyloidosis?

Prevalance of Amyloidosis: less than 3,000 people in the US (Mayo Clinic)
Prevalance Rate of Amyloidosis: approx 1 in 90,666 or 0.00% or 3,000 people in USA [about data]

How serious is Amyloidosis?

Complications of Amyloidosis: see complications of Amyloidosis

What causes Amyloidosis?

Causes of Amyloidosis: see causes of Amyloidosis

What are the symptoms of Amyloidosis?

Symptoms of Amyloidosis: see symptoms of Amyloidosis

Complications of Amyloidosis: see complications of Amyloidosis

Amyloidosis: Testing

Diagnostic testing: see tests for Amyloidosis.

Misdiagnosis: see misdiagnosis and Amyloidosis.

How is it treated?

Treatments for Amyloidosis: see treatments for Amyloidosis
Research for Amyloidosis: see research for Amyloidosis

Society issues for Amyloidosis

Hospitalization statistics for Amyloidosis: The following are statistics from various sources about hospitalizations and Amyloidosis:

• 0.008% (995) of hospital consultant episodes were for amyloidosis in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
• 86% of hospital consultant episodes for amyloidosis required hospital admission in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
• 57% of hospital consultant episodes for amyloidosis were for men in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
• 43% of hospital consultant episodes for amyloidosis were for women in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
• 23% of hospital consultant episodes for amyloidosis required emergency hospital admission in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
• 9.4 days was the mean length of stay in hospitals for amyloidosis in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
• 3 days was the median length of stay in hospitals for amyloidosis in England 2002-03 (Hospital Episode Statistics, Department of Health, England, 2002-03)
• more statistics...»

Organs Affected by Amyloidosis:

Organs and body systems related to Amyloidosis include:

• Blood
• Metabolism

Name and Aliases of Amyloidosis

Main name of condition: Amyloidosis

amyloid disease, Amyloidosis (generic term), Primary amyloidosis, Amyloid [primary]

Amyloid disease Source - Diseases Database

Amyloid [primary], Primary amyloidosis
Source - Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Research the causes of these diseases that are similar to, or related to, Amyloidosis:

• Immunoglobulin
• AL
• Light chain amyloidosis
• Primary amyloidosis
• Primary systemic amyloidosis
• Myeloma-associated amyloidosis
• Ig-related amyloidosis
• Monoclonal plasma cell dyscrasias
• Monoclonal plasma cell disorder

 » Next page: Online Medical Textbooks for Amyloidosis

Rate This Website

What do you think about the features of this website? Take our user survey and have your say:

Website User Survey

Medical Tools & Articles:

Next articles:

• Online Medical Textbooks for Amyloidosis
• Prevalence and Incidence of Amyloidosis
• Videos related to Amyloidosis
• Prognosis of Amyloidosis
• Types of Amyloidosis

Tools & Services:

• Bookmark this page
• Take a survey relating to Amyloidosis
• Symptom Search
• Symptom Checker
• Medical Dictionary
• Give your feedback

Medical Articles:

• Disease & Treatments Search
• Misdiagnosis Center
• Full list of interesting articles

Forums & Message Boards

• Ask or answer a question at the Boards:
• I cannot get a diagnosis. Please help.
• Tell us your medical story.
• Share your misdiagnosis story.
• What is the best treatment for my condition?
• See all the Boards.

Enter your search terms Submit search form
Search The Web Search wrongdiagnosis.com

Common Health Mistakes

Symptom
Checker

Search Specialists by State and City