[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of secondary amyloidosis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis--renal involvement and therapy]

Abstract

Secondary amyloidosis is an important complication that may have a strong influence on the prognosis of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We studied 21 RA patients with secondary amyloidosis. The two major initial signs were gastrointestinal symptoms and renal involvement. When 15 of the 21 patients were diagnosed as having secondary amyloidosis, they displayed renal involvement including proteinuria, hematuria and hypercreatininemia. The 15 patients with amyloidosis were either subjected to dialysis or died within 35 months on the average. The causes of death in 13 patients were cardiac failure, gastrointestinal bleeding and infection, which were strongly implicated with renal failure. Dialysis was applied to seven patients. Three of them were maintained with chronic dialysis. We discussed the induction-time and the method of dialysis in patients with amyloidosis secondary to RA.