What is the Difference Between Amyloidosis and Sarcoidosis

The key difference between amyloidosis and sarcoidosis is that amyloidosis is a condition where an uncommon protein called amyloids accumulates in the body’s organs and tissues, while sarcoidosis is a disorder that involves the formation of granulomas in the lungs and lymphatic system.

Amyloidosis and sarcoidosis are disorders that are due to the abnormal deposits of substances in tissues in the body. Both these disorders are very serious and need to be treated immediately before complications. Generally, amyloidosis occurs in middle-aged and older people, whereas sarcoidosis occurs in younger people.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Amyloidosis 
3. What is Sarcoidosis
4. Similarities – Amyloidosis and Sarcoidosis
5. Amyloidosis vs Sarcoidosis in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Amyloidosis vs Sarcoidosis

What is Amyloidosis?

Amyloidosis is a rare disorder that occurs when amyloid proteins build up in organs and tissues. This protein build-up makes the organs not work properly. The affected organs may include the heart, kidneys, liver, spleen, nervous system, and digestive tract. The signs and symptoms of amyloidosis are severe fatigue, shortness of breath, numbness, tingling, or pain in hands or feet, swelling of ankles and legs, an enlargement of the tongue, diarrhea (possibly with blood), constipation, and skin changes such as thickening or easy bruising.

Hereditary factors and other factors, such as inflammatory diseases or long-term dialysis, can cause amyloidosis. The risk factors for amyloidosis include age (more in ages 60 and 70), sex (more common in men), having other diseases like chronic infectious or inflammatory disease, family history, kidney dialysis, and race (people of African descent have higher risk).

Amyloidosis can be diagnosed through family history, physical signs and symptoms, echocardiogram, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and nuclear imaging. Furthermore, treatment options for amyloidosis may include chemotherapy, heart medications, targeted therapies (drugs such as patisiran (Onpattro) and inotersen (Tegsedi)), autologous blood stem cell transplant, dialysis, and organ transplant.

What is Sarcoidosis?

Sarcoidosis is a disorder that is characterized by the growth of tiny collections of inflammatory cells known as granulomas in parts of the body. The most commonly affected parts are the lungs and lymph nodes. But it can also affect the other parts of the body, such as the eyes, skin, heart, and other organs. The symptoms of sarcoidosis may include fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, weight loss, pain and swelling in joints, persistent dry cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, chest pain, a red rash or purple bumps, normally located on the shins or ankles, blurred vision, eye pain, fainting (syncope), irregular heartbeats, heart palpitations and swelling caused by excess fluid.

Sarcoidosis is often caused by a genetic predisposition, which can be triggered by various factors such as bacteria, viruses, dust, or chemicals. The risk factors for sarcoidosis include age and sex (occurs between the ages of 20 and 60 years, and women are more likely to develop the disease), race (people of African descent and those of Northern European descent have a higher risk), and family history.

Sarcoidosis can be diagnosed through family history, physical symptoms evaluation, blood and urine tests to assess overall health and how well your kidneys and liver function, chest X-ray, CT scan of the chest, lung function test, electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), eye examination, PET scan or MRI scan, and biopsies. Furthermore, treatment options for sarcoidosis may include medications such as corticosteroids, medications that suppress the immune system, methotrexate (Trexall) and azathioprine, hydroxychloroquine, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) inhibitors, physical therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, implanted cardiac pacemaker or defibrillator for heart arrhythmias, and surgery.

What are the Similarities Between Amyloidosis and Sarcoidosis?

• Amyloidosis and sarcoidosis are disorders that are due to the abnormal deposits of substances in tissues in the body.
• Both these disorders cause severe complications by affecting different organs in the body.
• They may have similar symptoms, such as fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, skin changes, swelling in the different parts of the body, etc.
• Both these disorders affect multiple organ systems.
• They can be diagnosed through family history, physical evaluation, blood and urine tests, and imaging tests.
• They are mainly treated through specific medications.

What is the Difference Between Amyloidosis and Sarcoidosis?

Amyloidosis is a disorder due to the collection of uncommon proteins called amyloids in the organs and tissues of the body, while sarcoidosis is a disorder due to the granulomas formation in the lungs and lymphatic system. Thus, this is the key difference between amyloidosis and sarcoidosis. Furthermore, amyloidosis usually affects middle-aged and older people, whereas sarcoidosis usually affects younger people.

The infographic below presents the differences between amyloidosis and sarcoidosis in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.

Summary – Amyloidosis vs Sarcoidosis

Amyloidosis and sarcoidosis are disorders that are due to abnormal deposits of substances in tissues in the body. Amyloidosis occurs when amyloid proteins build up in organs and tissues, while sarcoidosis occurs when there is a growth of tiny collections of inflammatory cells known as granulomas in parts of the body. Moreover, both these disorders can affect multiple organ systems. However, amyloidosis is more likely to damage the heart, kidneys, and nervous system, whereas sarcoidosis is more likely to affect the lungs and lymph nodes. So, this summarizes the difference between amyloidosis and sarcoidosis.

Reference:

1. “Amyloidosis: Causes, Types, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis.” WebMD.
2. “Sarcoidosis.” Mayo Clinic.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Lichen amyloidosis on leg 1” By Tinss – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Cutaneous findings in systemic sarcoidosis” By Nowack et al. – BMC Dermatology 2002 2:15 doi:10.1186/1471-5945-2-15 (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Commons Wikimedia