Amyloid in Urinary Sediments as a Diagnostic Technique

Excerpt

Three separate reports describing the detection of amyloid fibrils in urinary sediment, each in a single amyloidotic patient, suggested a noninvasive technique for the diagnosis of amyloidosis (1-3). Others, however, have reported amyloid fibrils in nonamyloidotic nephrotic patients and normal persons as well (4).

To evaluate the diagnostic usefulness of the occurrence of amyloid in the urine, we screened the urines of 20 proteinuric amyloidotic patients and, as control subjects, 10 nonamyloidotic nephrotic patients.

Five hundred-millilitre morning urine specimens were centrifuged in a Sorval superspeed RC-2-B refrigerated centrifuge (Sorval, Newtown, Connecticut) at 15 000 g for 1 h. The sediment