[TerryH]

Distinguishing between myeloma & related diseases

by TerryH on Mon Oct 06, 2014 9:30 am

There are often questions here in the forum along the lines of "I just got some lab results, and it seems that I may have myeloma. Do I?"

Most of us here have a natural tendency to respond to those questions by asking ourselves: Is it MGUS, smoldering myeloma, or multiple myeloma?

And, if it's not one of those Big Three, we might then start considering a few related conditions, like amyloidosis, Waldenstroms, and perhaps POEMS syndrome.

For the most part, I think this line of thinking makes sense. However, there are other conditions that could be relevant, and I recently came across this ASH education article that could be useful in those sorts of situations.

G Merlini and G Palladini, "Differential diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance", ASH Education Book, 2012.

See, in particular Table 2.

Even though you would think from the title that the article is focused on MGUS, that's a little misleading. In reality, the article is about monoclonal gammopathies in general.

[Betsy50]

Re: Distinguishing between myeloma & related diseases

by Betsy50 on Sun Oct 12, 2014 4:27 pm

Hello TerryH,

Thanks for the link to a very important information, and a great help to understand all the
implications of a monoclonal gammopathy.

Best Regards,

Betsy