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Browsing by Author "Schmidt, Eeva-Kaisa"

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  • Causes of death and life span in Finnish gelsolin amyloidosis 
    Schmidt, Eeva-Kaisa; Atula, Sari; Tanskanen, Maarit; Nikoskinen, Tuuli; Notkola, Irma-Leena; Kiuru-Enari, Sari (2016)
    Background: Finnish type of hereditary gelsolin amyloidosis (AGel amyloidosis) is an autosomal dominant disorder. Until recently, there has only been little knowledge of fatal complications of the disease and its possible impact on the patients' life span. Methods: We identified 272 deceased patients based on patient interviews and genealogical data. After collecting their death certificates we recorded the patients' underlying and immediate causes of death (CoD) and life span and compared them to the general Finnish population. We then calculated proportional mortality ratios (PMR), standardised for age and sex, for the CoDs. Results: The underlying CoD in 20% of the patients was AGel amyloidosis (PMR=114.2; 95% CI 85.6-149.4). The frequency of fatal cancers (10%) was significantly diminished (PMR=0.47; 95% CI 0.31-0.69). Renal complications were overrepresented as the immediate CoD in female patients (PMR=2.82 95% CI 1.13-5.81). The mean life span for male patients was 73.9 years (95% CI 72.0-75.6) and 78.0 years for female patients (95% CI 76.4-79.5) compared to 72.1 and 80.1 years for the general population. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the disease increases the risk for fatal renal complications, but does not substantially shorten the life span, possibly due to the significantly lower frequency of fatal cancers.
  • Natural course of Finnish gelsolin amyloidosis 
    Nikoskinen, Tuuli; Schmidt, Eeva-Kaisa; Strbian, Daniel; Kiuru-Enari, Sari; Atula, Sari (2015)
    Background: Finnish type of hereditary gelsolin amyloidosis (FGA) is one of the most common diseases of Finnish disease heritage. Existing FGA knowledge is based only on smaller patient series, so our aim was to elucidate the natural course of the disease in a comprehensive sample of patients and to build up a national FGA patient registry. Methods: An inquiry about the known and suspected signs of FGA, sent to the members of Finnish Amyloidosis Association, telephone contacts and hospital records were utilised to create the registry. Results: A total of 227 patients were entered to the database. The first symptom was ophthalmological for 167 patients (73.6%) at the mean age of 39 years. Corneal lattice dystrophy (CLD) was reported at the mean age of 43 years. Impaired vision, polyneuropathy, facial nerve paresis and cutis laxa appeared on average between 52 and 57 years. Carpaltunnel syndrome (CTS) was reported by 86 patients (37.9%). Nine patients (4.0%) had a pacemaker and 12 (6.1%) had cardiomyopathy. Conclusions: The first symptom was ophthalmological in most cases. Except for CLD, no prominent difference in the age of appearance was found between the major symptoms. CTS, cardiac pacemakers and cardiomyopathy were remarkably more common compared to the general population.

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