OBJECTIVETo establish a novel method to determine specific type of amyloidosis through laser microdissection and mass spectrometry (LMD/MS) based proteomic analysis.

METHODSThere were 138 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) biopsy samples of patients who were diagnosed as systemic amyloidosis used in this study. For each case, a 10 μm section stained with congo-red and positive amyloid deposits were identified under fluorescent light, followed by micro-dissection and mass spectrometry analysis. The amyloidosis subtype was confirmed based on the most abundant amyloid protein.

RESULTSThe tissue types of 138 specimens were as following: subcutaneous abdominal fat accounted for 26%, tongue for 19%, gingiva for 11%, kidney for 9%, intestine for 9%, heart for 6% and others for 20%. Specific types of amyloid were accurately detected in 121 cases, including 106 (87.6%) amyloid light chain (AL) type, 7 (5.8%) amyloid trans-thy-retin (ATTR), 2 (1.7%) amyloidogenic protein A (AA), 2 (1.7%) amyloid heavy chain (AH)/AL+AH, 2 (1.7%) fibrinogen alpha chain (AFib), 1(0.8%) amyloid apolipoprotein A-type II (AApoA-II) and one (0.8%) amyloid lysozyme (ALys). Diagnosis of amyloidosis was excluded in 5 cases. The types of twelve cases were indeterminate by LMD/MS. On the whole, LMD/MS reached 91.3% accuracy rate in amyloid typing. Commonly involved organs (for example, heart, kidney and liver) turned out to be suitable sources of FFPE samples with typing success rate of almost 100%. In contrast, MS analysis was successful in only 83.3% of subcutaneous abdominal fat samples.

CONCLUSIONLMD/MS method provided a more direct technique for accurate typing of amyloidosis in a single procedure.

Amyloidosis ; Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis

Antibodies, Monoclonal ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis ; Multiple Myeloma

Abdominal Pain/etiology* ; Amyloidosis/diagnosis* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis/complications* ; Immunoglobulin lambda-Chains

Humans ; Consensus ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis/therapy* ; Heart ; Immunoglobulin Light Chains ; China

Objective: To analyze the prognostic value of baseline serum free light chain (sFLC) in immunoglobulin light-chain cardiac amyloidosis (AL-CA) . Methods: Thirty patients diagnosed with AL-CA from January 2012 to December 2016 at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital were included in this study to retrospectively evaluate the clinical data. The cut-off value of dFLC (involved sFLC minus uninvolved sFLC) was determined according to the receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) and grouped, the prognoses of both groups were evaluated. Results: The onset age of all AL-CA patients was 57 years old. It occurred more commonly in men (21 cases, 70%) and the light chains of immunoglobulin composed mainly of type λ (22 cases, 73.3%) . Renal involvements occurred in 17 cases (56.7%) . The median value of difference between involved and uninvolved serum immunoglobulin free light chain levels (dFLC) was 162.9 (57.9-401.6) mg/L. More subjects in the high dFLC group had higher BNP (P=0.005) , and shorter median survival than those in the low dFLC group (15 months vs 47 months, P<0.001) . Similar results of median survival were observed when the patients were redivided by a new cut-off value of 180 mg/L for dFLC (high dFLC group: 22 months, low dFLC group: 40 months, P=0.001) , or a κ/λ ratio in which patients with κ type sFLC-ratio<3.79 and λ type sFLC-ratio≥0.06 were grouped into the low sFLC-ratio (37 months) , and the reverse the high sFLC-ratio ones (25 months, P=0.021) . In multivariate analysis, dFLC and New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification of cardiac function were two risk factors associated with all-cause mortality in patients, of them the hazard ratio for higher dFLC was 12.13 (95%CI 2.98-49.30, P<0.001) . Conclusion: Measurement of the sFLC level could implicate the prognosis of AL-CA.
Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light Chains ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis ; Kidney ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies

Systemic light chain amyloidosis (AL amyloidosis) is the most common type of amyloidosis, in which deposition of misfolded monoclonal light chain secreted by underlying clonal plasma cells leads to organ dysfunction. Tissue biopsy of involved organ is needed to confirm the type of amyloid deposits, thus proper treatment could be applied. Laser microdissection followed by mass spectrometry, performed on formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens, has been proven superior to traditional methods on accurate diagnosis of amyloidosis. Prognosis depends on the extent of cardiac involvement. The Mayo staging system using NT-ProBNP, cardiac troponin-T and free light chain, is the most robust method for risk stratification and treatment guidance. The introduction of autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-ASCT) resulted in long-term survival in responders, while treatment-related toxicity substantially limited the number of eligible candidates. Novel agents, especially bortezomib, thalidomide and lenalidomide hold promise to achieve comparable hematological responses with auto-ASCT, which might play significant role in treatment of recurrent or refractory AL amyloidosis.
Amyloidosis ; Bortezomib ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light Chains ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis ; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain ; Peptide Fragments ; Prognosis

Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics, treatment response, and prognosis of newly diagnosed symptomatic multiple myeloma (MM) patients with systemic light chain amyloidosis (AL) . Methods: The clinical data of 160 patients with newly diagnosed MM treated at the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University from January 1, 2017 to October 31, 2018, were retrospectively analyzed. According to the histopathological biopsy results of bone marrow, skin, and other tissues, the patients were divided into two groups according to whether amyloidosis was combined or not, namely, the MM+AL group and the MM group. The clinical characteristics and treatment responses of the two groups were compared. Results: Among the 160 patients with newly diagnosed MM, there were 42 cases in the MM+AL group and 118 cases in the MM group. In terms of clinical features, the involved light chain and non-involved light chain (dFLC) in the MM+AL group was significantly higher than that in the MM group (P=0.039) . After induction treatment, the MM+AL group had a higher overall response rate (85.7%vs 79.7%, P<0.05) and higher excellent partial response (76.2%vs 55.1%, P<0.05) . After a median follow-up of 26 (0.25-41) months, there was no significant difference in the progression free survival and overall survival (OS) between the two groups (P>0.05) . The OS of patients in autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation group was better than that in non transplantation group (P<0.05) .The prognosis of patients with cardiac involvement in the MM+AL group was significantly worse than that in the MM group and MM+AL group without cardiac involvement (P<0.001) , with a median OS of only 13 months. Conclusion: The differential diagnosis between the MM+AL and MM groups requires histopathology, particularly for patients with significantly increased dFLC. The overall remission rate of patients in MM+AL group after 4 courses of induction chemotherapy was higher than that in MM group. The prognosis of patients with cardiac involvement in MM+AL group was poor.
Amyloidosis/diagnosis* ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light Chains ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis/therapy* ; Multiple Myeloma/therapy* ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies

Aged ; Amyloidosis ; complications ; diagnosis ; Diagnostic Errors ; Dyspnea ; etiology ; Edema ; etiology ; Female ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis

Primary systemic light chain amyloidosis or immunoglobulin light-chain amyloidosis (AL) is the most common type of systemic amyloidosis.AL is a proteotoxic clonal plasma cell disease, a hematological malignancy, characterised by overproduction of immunoglobulin light chains that form characteristic abnormally folded and aggregated, insoluble fibrillar deposits in various organs, including kidneys, heart, liver, and autonomic and peripheral nerves, etc, these processes lead to organ dysfunction and death. Systemic amyloidosis have various types with different causes, thereby its clinical diagnosis and treatment are more difficult. Recent developments on studies that have significantly aided the management of patients with AL include diagnostic techniques for definitive typing of amyloid deposits by using flow cytometry and immunophenotype analysis. These methods can detect abnormalities of bone marrow plasma cell clones, such as CD38(+), CD138(+), CD56(+), CD19(-) in AL patients. The monitoring abnormal plasma cells with immunoglobulin light chain restriction and abnormal plasma cell phenotypic characteristics contributes to the early diagnosis of AL and detection of minimal residual disease after treatment, which greatly improved AL treatment and prognosis. In this review the diagnosis and typing, clinical characteristics, flow cytometry, immunophenotyping of bone marrow cells, immunoglobulin light chain restriction and phenotypic characteristics of abnormal plasma cells of AL are briefly summarized.
Amyloidosis ; diagnosis ; Bone Marrow Cells ; cytology ; Humans ; Immunoglobulin Light-chain Amyloidosis ; Plasma Cells ; cytology