A European family with histidine 58 transthyretin mutation in familial amyloid polyneuropathy

1. IntroductionMore than 50 mutations of the transthyretin (TTR) [1]molecule resulting in different clinical forms of amyloidosisincluding familial amyloid polyneuropathy (FAP) havebeen reported to date. Within this FAP spectrum severaltransthyretin mutations are more frequent, others are rare.One mutation, the codon 58 histidine for leucine has pre-viously been recorded only in American subjects (Mary-land/German type), originally reported in a large kinship[2,3] and in another family from Ohio [4]. In the originaldescription of the Maryland/German type of amyloidosis[2], it was stated that the early immigrants in this pedigreewere from the Rhine river area, "nearly all of them from thelef…