PhD Scientific Days 2022

Clinical Medicine VII. (Poster discussion will take place in the Aula during the Coffee Break)

Retrospective Study and Multimodal Imaging of Primary Localized Cutaneous Amyloidosis

Text of the abstract

Introduction. Primary localized cutaneous amyloidosis (PLCA) is a chronic dermatological disease, where amyloid deposits are present in the dermis. Its common subtypes are macular amyloidosis (MA), lichen amyloidosis (LA) and biphasic amyloidosis (BA). PLCA is rare in the caucasian population, limited data is available in the literature on its epidemiology and treatment, and the diagnosis is often delayed due to its aspecific clinical symptoms. High frequency ultrasound (HFUS) can be used as an objective tool in the examination and diagnosis of dermatologic diseases.
Aims. We performed a retrospective study analysing the clinical data of patients diagnosed with PLCA at Semmelweis University, Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Dermatooncology. We performed examinations with dermoscopy and HFUS on patients diagnosed with macular or lichen amyloidosis and examined the effect of topical therapy on the lesions.
Method. We reviewed the clinical data and photodocumentation of patients diagnosed with PLCA – and confirmed by histology – in the last 20 years at the Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Dermatooncology. Dermus SkinScanner, a 33 MHz HFUS device combined with optical imaging was used to examine the structure of the skin. The examinations were performed on the lesions initially, and 1 or 2 months after the patients started topical therapy. The HFUS recordings were analysed, the epidermal and dermal thickness was measured.
Results. From 2001 to 2022, 40 patients were diagnosed with PLCA, 22 patients presented with macular, 17 with lichen and 1 with biphasic amyloidosis. The mean age at the diagnosis was 54.0±15.1 years. The female to male ratio was 11:7 and 6:16 in LA and MA, respectively. LA appeared on the lower limbs in 11 patients (61%), while MA caused symptoms on the scapular region in 19 patients (86%). On HFUS recordings, we detected hypoechogenic areas in the dermis that can be the sign of the amyloid deposits.
Conclusion. We performed a retrospective study on the epidemiology of PLCA in our region. HFUS can be used as an objective tool in the diagnosis of PLCA and in examining the efficacy of different treatments.
Funding. This work was supported by grants from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary– NKFIH (FK_131916, 2019), and EFOP-3.6.3-VEKOP-16-2017-00009.