[red_kittycat]

If anyone's been following, my Abyssinian died of an unknown cause a couple weeks ago. The final tissue autopsy results came yesterday - intestinal tissue consistent with panleukopenia, and amyloidosis in the kidneys and pancreas. The vets dismissed the possibility of distemper because no other signs were consistent with it, and she was vaccinated. However, they did concentrate on the amyloidosis, since Abyssinians are prone. From what I understand, amyloids can be deposited in many organs, causing lesions and failure. My question is, COULD amyloids be deposited in the lungs, causing those mysterious lesions and bruising the autopsy showed? I'm waiting for a call back from my vet but wondered if anyone else knew.

 

[drjean]

renal amyloidosis

As far as I know amyloid *can* be deposited anywhere...for instance, amyloid in the brain is thought to be a cause of Alzheimer's. In the pancreas, it can cause diabetes. It causes problems simply be being there and taking up space that cells need to function properly.

Humans get amyloid in the lungs, but it's rare, and usually occurs in older people. Hemorrhage is an unlikely complication (I did a quick review of the human literature and hemorrhage tends to occur when they're messing with it, i.e., taking a biopsy). I've only studied amyloid in depth in relation to the pancreas, but there it tends to be deposited in places that have experienced inflammation, sort of vaguely akin to scar tissue. I wonder if there was some underlying, possibly ongoing, inflammatory process that triggered amyloid deposition in the first place.

It'll be interesting to see what the vet says. Let us know!

Cheers,
Dr. Jean

 

[red_kittycat]

She was prone to urinary tract infections. Maybe this caused the renal amyloidosis. My vets' best guesses were that she was just an immunosuppressed cat from birth, and that chronic illness just wore her down. Thanks for all the info! Understanding what goes on inside the body helps me make sense of things.