Medical Questions » Other Problems Questions » Question No. 764
Question:My father suffers from amyloidosis. Can you explain this disease to me in simple terms? All I get from his doctors is jargon.
Answer:Amyloidosis is one of the most complex, rare and poorly understood diseases in the text books. This is why you hear so much jargon, because there is no simple way in which to describe it. There are also several different forms of amyloidosis that vary in severity, age of onset and outcome. The disease occurs when amyloid, a proteinaceous material that can be best described as a dense red jelly, is deposited in different parts of the body. It may replace the normal tissue of the skin, heart, kidneys, lung, liver, muscles etc. When sufficient amounts of the normal tissue has been replaced by the amyloid, the involved organ will fail to function properly, leading to the symptoms of the disease. These symptoms can be very varied, depending on which organ is involved. There is no treatment available other than rather crude surgery to cut out the larger deposits of amyloid. The cause of the disease is also unknown.
       
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