Treatment of amyloidosis and the rheumatologist. State of the art and perspectives for the future.

The rheumatologist must be prepared to face diagnostic and therapeutic problems related to different categories of amyloidosis. This applies to the systemic AA amyloidosis that complicates chronic inflammatory arthropathies like adult and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, causing nephropathy and various internal manifestations. Other types of amyloidosis are essential because they may localize to structures of the locomotor system and cause rheumatic complaints. At present, there is no cure for amyloidosis. But adequate and especially early therapeutic intervention is helpful in many cases. This review focuses on treatment of the categories of amyloidosis which are most relevant to the rheumatologist. In addition to treatments that are available today, more effective therapeutic modalities which hopefully will be available in the near future are also reviewed.