Amyloidosis of the Lower Respiratory Tract

This paper reports two new examples of a rare form of amyloidosis affecting the lower respi- ratory tract, and reviews previous cases. A short survey of amyloid disease is included. The cases under consideration belong to the localized tumour-forming variety of the disease and do not include examples of the primary systemic form in which bronchopulmonary deposits are present. HISTORY Rokitansky ( Jeremiah Wainewright gave an unmistakable description of it in 1737, as did John Abercrombie in 1828. Lardaceous disease became established as a clinical entity between 1850 and 1888, with several reported series of sufferers, notably 83 by Dickinson (1879), 58 by Charleswood Turner (Dickinson, 1879), 36 by Samuel Wilks (1856), and 244 by Hilton Fagge (1876), who analysed necropsy records of 20 years at Guy's Hospital. Virchow (1858) was the first to describe the minute pathology of the condition, which he named amyloid disease.