Primary amyloidosis is a systemic disease that may cause diffuse enlargement of the tongue or macroglossia. Obvious macroglossia is easily detected by clinical inspection. There is no agreement, however, on an objective measure of tongue enlargement. Computed tomography of the base of the tongue was performed in 12 patients with primary amyloidosis. Tongue width and width of the hyoglossus and genioglossus muscles were measured. Based on normal measurements it was concluded that macroglossia is present if the tongue is wider than 50 mm and the genioglossus wider than 11 mm. This should be accompanied by a midline cleft of the tongue surface and outward displacement of normal-size submandibular glands.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Intracellular and extracellular fibrillar structures in gastroduodenal endocrine tumors.

Sixteen gastroduodenal endocrine tumors have been examined ultrastructurally for the presence of intracellular and extracellular fibrillar material. Intracellular juxtanuclear fibrillar bodies, often with intermingled secretory granules, were observed in one antral, one pyloric, and three duodenal tumors. In the pyloric tumor there were also extracellular fibrillar structures, which, in contrast to the intracellular fibrils, showed a green birefringence after staining with alkaline Congo red indicating the amyloid nature of these fibrils. One endocrine tumor localized to the fundus-corpus contained extracellular fibrillar bodies of a type typical of adenoid cystic carcinoma.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Magnetic resonance imaging in primary amyloidosis.

Twelve patients with primary amyloidosis (AL) were investigated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In 9 patients an abnormal thickening of the heart walls was present and in 2 macroglossia was found at MRI. T1 was significantly increased in liver (p less than 0.05) and subcutaneous fat (p less than 0.01) while it was decreased in the spleen (p less than 0.05). T2 was significantly decreased (p less than 0.01) in the spleen in patients with amyloidosis, while it was not significantly altered in the liver or subcutaneous fat. After therapy T1 of the liver was reduced towards normal values in 4 patients. It is concluded that MRI might be a method to quantitate the amount of amyloid deposits in the tissue, and that the effect of therapy may be monitored with this technique.

Aged↗