**Author Listing - Lead/ Submitting Author (we will be communicating with this individual): Name, Institution, City and State where the work was done. Co-authors will be added in a separate section.**
Rola Khedraki, MD
Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

**Main Body of the Abstract**
Introduction: Diagnostic delays are common in amyloidosis, however recognition of “red flag” symptoms can offer opportunities for earlier diagnosis.  In systemic amyloidosis, gastrointestinal (GI) involvement may occur and can herald an underlying unrecognized amyloidogenic disease process. We hypothesized that prospective Congo red staining of GI tissue samples may serve as an effective means of opportunistic screening for amyloidosis and may improve the detection rate of early disease.
Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study that enrolled consecutive patients over the age of 35 undergoing clinically indicated endoscopy for characteristic GI symptoms seen in amyloidosis including unexplained weight loss, unexplained diarrhea, alternating constipation/diarrhea, early satiety, gastroparesis and new-onset irritable bowel syndrome within the last year in patients over age 50.  Patients were consented for Congo red staining of clinically indicated tissue samples.
Results: A total of 100 patients underwent clinically indicated GI mucosal biopsies, of which 97 were stained with Congo red. Enrolled patients had a mean age of 49.5 years with 64% female and 11% black. A total of 181 GI biopsies were collected with the most common locations being the colon (73%), stomach (44%), duodenum (33%) and jejunum (14%). After Congo red staining, no biopsies stained positive.
Conclusion: This study represents our single center experience of an active ascertainment strategy to detect amyloid deposits in patients presenting with “red flag” GI symptoms. We demonstrated that utilizing GI biopsy as an initial diagnostic tool is not a useful screening strategy.



**Author Listing - Lead/ Submitting Author (we will be communicating with this individual): Name, Institution, City and State where the work was done. Co-authors will be added in a separate section.**
Rola Khedraki, MD
Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH

**Main Body of the Abstract**
**Introduction:** Diagnostic delays are common in amyloidosis, however recognition of “red flag” symptoms can offer opportunities for earlier diagnosis.  In systemic amyloidosis, gastrointestinal (GI) involvement may occur and can herald an underlying unrecognized amyloidogenic disease process. We hypothesized that prospective Congo red staining of GI tissue samples may serve as an effective means of opportunistic screening for amyloidosis and may improve the detection rate of early disease.
**Methods:** This was a prospective cross-sectional study that enrolled consecutive patients over the age of 35 undergoing clinically indicated endoscopy for characteristic GI symptoms seen in amyloidosis including unexplained weight loss, unexplained diarrhea, alternating constipation/diarrhea, early satiety, gastroparesis and new-onset irritable bowel syndrome within the last year in patients over age 50.  Patients were consented for Congo red staining of clinically indicated tissue samples.
**Results:** A total of 100 patients underwent clinically indicated GI mucosal biopsies, of which 97 were stained with Congo red. Enrolled patients had a mean age of 49.5 years with 64% female and 11% black. A total of 181 GI biopsies were collected with the most common locations being the colon (73%), stomach (44%), duodenum (33%) and jejunum (14%). After Congo red staining, no biopsies stained positive.
**Conclusion:** This study represents our single center experience of an active ascertainment strategy to detect amyloid deposits in patients presenting with “red flag” GI symptoms. We demonstrated that utilizing GI biopsy as an initial diagnostic tool is not a useful screening strategy.



Gastrointestinal Amyloid Screening Study (GASS): Is Screening for Amyloid in the Gastrointestinal Tract Useful? PA101 (#422)

We invite you to attend the XIX International Symposium on Amyloidosis to be held in Rochester, MN.

This symposium is organized as a hybrid meeting (with the focus on in-person) held from Sunday, May 26 through Thursday, May 30, 2024.

Together with the ISA Board and members of Mayo Clinic, a very attractive scientific hybrid program is being planned. The program will cover a variety of types of systemic amyloidosis: ATTR (hereditary and wild-type), AL (light-chain), AA and less frequent forms. There will be key lectures, specific symposia including those company sponsored, oral presentations and poster sessions of accepted abstracts.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This program will provide a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art education in systemic amyloidosis: basic science, pathophysiology, diagnosis, current and emerging treatments. Scientific presentations will include competitive oral and poster abstracts. The rapid evolution of scientific discovery and expanding treatment options has created tremendous interest in the field and this meeting will fill and important gap in educating scientists and clinicians.