[Dialysis-associated amyloidosis. Part 2: Incidence and site of osseous amyloidosis. Dialysis characteristics and clinical findings].

In a conventional radiographic skeletal survey of 90 hemodialyzed patients, 28% (25 patients) showed renal osteopathy; 27 patients (30%) had periarticular bone cysts and 3 patients (3%) presented radiological evidence of destructive spondylarthropathy. The bone cysts were most commonly identified in the carpal bones and around the hips and shoulders; destructive spondylarthropathy was seen in the cervical and lumbar spine. Whereas characteristic radiographic changes of renal osteodystrophy could already be identified in the 1st year of dialysis, periarticular bone cysts occurred at the earliest after 2 years, most frequently after 5 years of dialysis. Destructive spondylarthropathy was seen after more than 10 years of dialysis. A positive correlation between these bone lesions and secondary hyperparathyreoidism, dialysis membranes or renal diseases was not found.