Amyloidosis is a disease characterized by abnormal deposition of a particular protein called amyloid in various tissues of the body. Amyloid protein can be deposited in a localized area, without any harmful impact or affecting only a single tissue of the body. This form of amyloidosis is called localized amyloidosis. Amyloidosis that affects tissues throughout the body is referred to as systemic amyloidosis. Systemic amyloidosis can cause serious changes in virtually any organ of the body. Amyloidosis is associated with diverse symptomatology, with no characteristic symptoms, so that early diagnosis is often difficult. Herein, we report two cases of systemic amyloidosis encountered by us. The first visited us with the chief complaint of swelling of the tongue, and died of cardiac failure caused by cardiac amyloidosis two months later; the other visited us with the chief complaint of swelling of the submental region and was diagnosed as having systemic amyloidosis secondary to multiple myeloma.
We present a summary of the two cases, with a focus on the clinical findings and diagnosis.
