Frequency and distribution of senile cardiovascular amyloid: A clinicopathologic correlation

doi:10.1016/0002-9343(83)90443-6

The American Journal of Medicine

Volume 75, Issue 4, October 1983, Pages 618-623

https://doi.org/10.1016/0002-9343(83)90443-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

Atrium, ventricle, aorta, lung, kidney, and rectum were removed at autopsy from 85 consecutive elderly patients (aged 80 years or older) and examined for amyloid with Congo red. All tissues containing amyloid were counterstained with an antiserum specific for amyloid fibril protein ASc₁ and studied by immunofluorescence. Three distinct forms of amyloid were found: (1) all patients had senile aortic amyloid; (2) 78 percent of patients had isolated atrial amyloid; and (3) 25 percent of patients had senile cardiac amyloid of the ASc₁ type. The cardiac amyloid deposits were small and widely scattered in more than 80 percent of patients with isolated atrial amyloid and in more than 50 percent of patients with ASc₁-type amyloid. Of 21 patients with ASc₁ amyloid, 19 had extracardiac involvement (lung in 81 percent of cases and rectum in 57 percent of cases). The kidney was not involved in any patient. The mean heart weight, frequency of atrial fibrillation, percentage of patients with heart failure, and frequency of myocardial infarction were increased in patients with cardiac amyloid, but these differences failed to reach statistical significance. There was no difference in the mean left ventricular wall thickness or degree of coronary atherosclerosis.

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^☆: This study was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grant CA 16835, the Swedish Medical Research Council, and the Research Fund of King Gustaf V.

¹: From the Department of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover, New Hampshire.

²: From the Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

³: From the Department of Pathology, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden.

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Clinical studyFrequency and distribution of senile cardiovascular amyloid: A clinicopathologic correlation☆

Abstract

Am J Med

Amyloidosis in human and animal pathology: a comparative study

Senile amyloidosis: a protean manifestation of the aging process

J Clin Pathol

Senile cardiac amyloidosis: the existence of two different amyloid substances in the aging heart

Scand J Immunol

Characterization of an amyloid fibril protein from senile cardiac amyloid

J Exp Med

Senile cardiac amyloid is related to prealbumin

Scand J Immunol

Senile cardiac amyloid: evidence that fibrils contain a protein immunologically related to prealbumin

Immunology

Senile aortic amyloid: a third distinctive type of age-related cardiovascular amyloid

Am J Pathol

A paraffin embedding technique employing immunofluorescence

J Histochem Cytochem

Senile cardiac amyloid: demonstration of a unique fibril protein in tissue sections

J Immunol

Clinical study
Frequency and distribution of senile cardiovascular amyloid: A clinicopathologic correlation☆