Case ReportOpen Access

Gastrointestinal Amyloidosis Manifesting as Chronic Diarrhea in a Case of Rheumatoid Arthritis – A Case Report

Volume 2 - Issue 2

**Shefali K Sharma*, Prasanth Balasubramanian, Varun Dhir, Aman Sharma and Sanjay Jain**

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- Department of Internal Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India
*Corresponding author: Shefali Khanna Sharma, Department of Internal Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, 4^th floor, F block, Nehru Hospital, Chandigarh, India, 160012

Received: January 24, 2018; Published: February 02, 2018

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.02.000721

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Abstract

Chronic inflammatory conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) causes deposition of Amyloid Associated (AA) in various tissues or organs resulting in secondary or reactive systemic amyloidosis. We have reported here a 58-year old lady, known case of RA since 17 years with very poor compliance to treatment who presented with chronic diarrhea since 2 months, on evaluation, upper GI endoscopy and biopsy revealed positive for serum amyloid associated on innumohistochemistry staining, suggestive of secondary systemic amyloiosis. Symptoms gradually disappeared with the prompt institution disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). GI amyloidosis has been reported up to 60% of the patients with secondary amyloidosis and must not be forgotten while evaluating the cause for chronic diarrhea in a patient with chronic inflammatory condition like RA.

Keywords: Rheumatoid arthritis, amyloidosis, secondary amyloidosis, gastrointestinal amyloidosis

Abbreviation: RA: Rheumatoid Arthritis; AA: Amyloid Associated; GI: Gastro Intestinal; AL: Amyloid Light chain; DMARDs: Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs