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Cardiac involvement in primary systemic amyloidosis, due to amassing of fragments of light chains, is detected in the majority of cases. We report the case of a 56-year-old woman who came to our observation because of symptoms of congestive heart failure. Diagnosis of restrictive cardiomyopathy was made by echocardiographic examination, which showed right ventricular hypertrophy, disarray of interventricular septum and restrictive flow pattern at the mitral valve. Primary systemic amyloidosis was diagnosed by abdominal fat pad biopsy. Laboratory findings confirmed biopsy results, leading to the definite diagnosis of restrictive cardiomyopathy due to IgA kappa monoclonal gammopathy in primary systemic amyloidosis.

Prognosis for patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma is very poor, and most patients are beyond cure by the time the diagnosis has been made. The pathogenesis of this uncommon neoplasm seems to be related to asbestos and radiation exposure. The authors report a case of diffuse peritoneal mesothelioma in a 33-year-old man. Since the patient complained of aspecific symptoms and both biochemical and "imaging" studies did not provide useful informations for a definitive diagnosis, an exploratory laparotomy was performed. Intraoperative histological findings demonstrated the presence of a malignant peritoneal mesothelioma which had spread all over the omentum; considering the inoperability assessment of this case, the operation was completed and the patient was dismissed with an adjuvant chemo-therapy. Five weeks later the patient died.