Pulmonary AL- amyloidosis masquerading as lung malignancy in an Australian Indigenous patient with Sjogren's syndrome

Abstract

Amyloidosis is a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by misfolding of extracellular proteins. Pulmonary amyloidosis secondary to Sjogren's syndrome (SS) is rare and to the best our knowledge has not been described in indigenous population. There is also minimal information on its clinical and radiological features. We' describe here 52-year-old Australian Indigenous women with underlying Sjogren's syndrome who was initially suspected to have a metastatic lung cancer with FGD avid lung nodule on PET scan. However, wedge resection of the nodule demonstrated eosinophilic homogenous material that demonstrated apple-green birefringence under polarized light after staining with Congo red with immunohistochemistry pattern in keeping with AL amyloidosis. Keywords: Sjogren's syndrome, Amyloidosis, Lung nodule, Pulmonary cysts, Indigenous