Amyloidosis of the tongue: a clinical and postmortem study

Abstract

Based on the limited number of reports and our own experience, amyloid involvement of the oral tissues seems to be rather rare, the tongue apparently being the most favoured site. Three such patients have been described in the present treatise. All 3 patients proved to be suffering from multiple myeloma or its prestage. In a previous postmortem study, more than 35% overall incidence of amyloid involvement of the tongue has been reported. In our own postmortem study of 100 tongues not a single case of amyloidosis was encountered. This inconsistency can probably be explained by the different use of stains and their interpretation. Limited experience with immunohistochemical methods for subtyping amyloid has been presented.