ABSTRACT
In France the descriptive epidemiology of amyloidosis is not well known. In this chapter, the authors aim to decide to compile a register of amyloidosis in the University Hospital of Rennes. Kyle has shown interesting results concerning the incidence of primary systemic amyloidosis in Olmsted County, Minnesota, 1950 through 1989. Estimated annual incidence was 8.9 new cases per million inhabitants corresponding to 2225 new cases each year in the United States. Immunochemistry was used to characterize the type of amyloidosis. The incidence of transthyretin amyloidosis in previous studies was 10 to 20% of the incidence of AL amyloidosis. Regarding the reduction in chronic infectious diseases incidence of AA amyloidosis has dramatically decreased. Diagnosis of amyloidosis was mainly performed on biopsy of affected organ. Bone marrow biopsy and minor salivary gland biopsy represented only 7 % of all biopsies and 14 % of positive biopsies.
