Amyloidosis: symptoms and characteristics of the disease

There are very serious illnesses that for some time manifest themselves so ordinary that they often lead to a tragic ending, at first glance, quite unexpectedly. These include amyloidosis symptoms which practically do not differ from the symptoms of other, less serious, diseases.

The patient is examined by months for some, then for other specialists, diagnoses, treatment is prescribed, and a person is extinguished literally before our eyes. Why is this happening and what kind of disease is it - amyloidosis? What is amyloidosis? Its characteristics and the causes of the emergence of

The most correct thing to talk about a whole group of diseases, united by one name - amyloidosis, since there are several types of this serious ailment. Amyloidosis - marked disturbance of protein metabolism in the body, when amyloid is deposited in organs and tissues - a special protein-polysaccharide complex, first complicating, and later - blocking their work altogether, which leads first to a gradual disruption of functions, and then - to the complete death of patientsbodies.

Amyloidosis is classified not only for reasons of origin, but also for the degree of involvement in the pathological process as separate organs( then speak of the local form) and at once several vital organs( in this case we are talking about systemic amyloidosis).The pathology itself is of three types:

• primary AL-amyloidosis, which is considered the most difficult for diagnosis due to the absence of an obvious picture of any deviations in the blood formula. Most often it affects the kidneys, heart, nervous system and gastrointestinal tract;
• secondary AA-amyloidosis arising on the background of rheumatoid arthritis, Bechterew's disease, ileitis( Crohn's disease), tuberculosis, a number of infectious diseases. The favorite target of AA-amyloidosis is the kidney. Also, the disease affects the heart, but amyloidosis of the spleen is diagnosed relatively rarely.
• Hereditary AF-amyloidosis, which is afflicted by representatives of certain nationalities( Swedes, Finns, Japanese, Portugueses) is a disease directly related to gene mutations.

Symptoms of

Symptoms of this disease do not have any specific features that would make such a serious diagnosis suspect, for example, based on patient complaints, visual examination or laboratory test data. The only exception is, perhaps, macroglossia - an increase in the tongue, but it is observed in no more than 20% of patients whose diagnosis is primary amyloidosis, which has the most unfavorable course of all three forms. The main external manifestations of a serious and insidious illness are reduced to such symptoms:

• rapid and severe thinness;
• lethargy, a feeling of constant fatigue and weakness;
• appearance of edema of different degrees of severity;
• disorders in the work of the heart;
• digestive disorders( pain in the stomach, diarrhea, constipation);
• enlarge the liver.

These complaints of ill health are usually made by so many patients, so amyloidosis is so complicated - diagnosis is not easy and requires special care and great knowledge from the doctor.

Diagnosis and treatment of

It is a whole problem: here you need not only the results of routine examination methods that can be obtained at any clinic, but also special ones - biopsy, in which punctate is taken directly from the affected organs and examined for amyloid activity.

To date, the medicine has not achieved any special success in the fight against amyloidosis, therefore it is not yet cure. The treatment is carried out supporting, aimed at improving the activity of the affected organs, for example, if amyloidosis of the kidney is diagnosed - treatment is performed to prevent the reduction of their function and the development of chronic renal failure, which, in fact, patients and die. The same is true with other organs involved in the pathological process.

Symptoms of amyloidosis are normal, and the outcome is tragic. It remains only to hope that medicine will someday find the cure for this terrible disease.