title: Extended survival of patients with primary systemic amyloidosis.
abstract: Systemic amyloidosis can produce a wide variety of clinical manifestations, including characteristic cutaneous findings. Large series of patients with primary systemic amyloidosis have shown that systemic amyloidosis, with or without associated myeloma, has a median survival of no more than twenty-four months. We present a case of systemic amyloidosis that has been present in a woman for eighteen years, as manifested by periorbital purpura and an immunoglobulin G kappa light chain paraproteinemia. She was otherwise healthy; results of bone marrow examination showed no overt myeloma. We speculate that kappa light chain paraproteinemia could prove to be a marker for a more benign type of systemic amyloidosis.
authors.affiliation: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock 72205-7199.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wallis
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Stough
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000686:Amyloidosis / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011695:IgA Vasculitis / Q000209:etiology; D010265:Paraproteinemias / Q000209:etiology; D012867:Skin / Q000473:pathology*; D012871:Skin Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate