Amyloid vascular disease: cord-like thickening of mucocutaneous arteries, intermittent claudication and angina in a case with underlying myelomatosis

Abstract

A patient with established myelomatosis and an IgG paraproteinaemia presented with intermittent claudication. Indurated cord-like structures were noted on the dorsum of the right hand and the buccal surface of the lower lip, and biopsy of the hand lesion revealed massive amyloid deposition within the wall of an artery. Cord-like thickening of mucocutaneous arteries as a presenting sign of systemic amyloidosis in the absence of glossomegaly or other cutaneous lesions has not been reported previously. The presence of intermittent claudication and angina suggested that amyloid involvement of large arteries was extensively distributed.