CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS OF SYSTEMIC AMYLOIDOSIS IN THE HEAD AND NECK REGION: A SCOPING REVIEW

This project aims to systematically map and synthesize the clinical manifestations of systemic amyloidosis affecting the head and neck region. Although systemic amyloidosis is a multisystemic disease, head and neck involvement is frequently under-recognized, inconsistently described, and often reported only as incidental findings within broader systemic studies. As a result, the true spectrum of anatomical sites, clinical presentations, and subtype-specific patterns remains unclear. Following the PRISMA-ScR reporting guideline, this review identifies the types of manifestations described across all relevant study designs, characterizes how these features vary among amyloidosis subtypes (including AL, ATTRv, ATTRwt, and AGel), and highlights gaps in reporting, terminology, and research focus. The project includes the full search strategies, eligibility criteria, screening procedures, data charting forms, categorization framework for manifestations, and the synthesis plan. Because of substantial methodological heterogeneity among included studies, no formal risk-of-bias assessment was conducted, in accordance with scoping review recommendations. Case series with fewer than 15 patients were excluded to avoid overrepresentation of isolated or anecdotal findings and to maintain balance in the mapping of clinical manifestations. The outputs of this OSF project include: – the review protocol; – detailed search strategies (all databases); – screening and selection flowchart (PRISMA-ScR); – data extraction templates; – the categorization system used for head and neck manifestations; – summarized extracted data; – supplementary files; – the final synthesized results. This scoping review provides a comprehensive overview of head and neck involvement in systemic amyloidosis, offering an evidence-based foundation for future clinical guidelines and research.