Like someone else who recently posted here, I am also 37 years old. I am being worked up presently. My kappa free light chains are 58.6 and my kappa-lambda ratio is at 3.68. Each of these three months ago were 26 and 1.46. I am having a bone marrow biopsy next Friday.
I have yet to have been told my differential diagnosis. However, I am a health care professional, so I have some understanding, Just want some input from someone else. Not that I would be diagnosed on blood work alone, but it sounds like my case could be smoldering myeloma.
Any input would be appreciated.
A little background, I am a caucasion male with G6PD, and my mother died 6 years ago at 56 from cardiac amyloidosis. Great genetics, huh?
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Bgreen - Name: Bgreen
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Self
- When were you/they diagnosed?: In process
- Age at diagnosis: 37
Re: High kappa free light chain level: does it mean myeloma?
Hi Bgreen,
Sorry to see so many young folks hitting this forum, but welcome to the forum nonetheless.
What led the doc to run the recent blood tests in the first place?
The big question regarding your lab test results is whether your elevated kappa free light chain level is due to the presence of monoclonal kappa free light chains.
If you are proceeding to a bone marrow biopsy, your doctor must have run a serum immunofixation, serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP), and quantified immunoglobulin (IgG, IgA, IgM) test. The immunofixation test will tell you if there are kappa free light chains or not, and what your overall isotype is (IgG kappa, IgA kappa, etc).
The SPEP test will tell you your M-spike level (if you have one). Note that an M-spike may be called an M-protein, abnormal protein band, paraprotein, or something else on the SPEP test results. You would also want to look at your creatinine, calcium, and hemoglobin levels on your CBC and CMP tests.
Without knowing all the above information, it's hard to tell if you may be looking at MGUS or smoldering multiple myeloma or something else. If your mom had amyloidosis, you would want to make sure that they run a Congo red stain test when doing the bone marrow biopsy.
Sorry to see so many young folks hitting this forum, but welcome to the forum nonetheless.
What led the doc to run the recent blood tests in the first place?
The big question regarding your lab test results is whether your elevated kappa free light chain level is due to the presence of monoclonal kappa free light chains.
If you are proceeding to a bone marrow biopsy, your doctor must have run a serum immunofixation, serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP), and quantified immunoglobulin (IgG, IgA, IgM) test. The immunofixation test will tell you if there are kappa free light chains or not, and what your overall isotype is (IgG kappa, IgA kappa, etc).
The SPEP test will tell you your M-spike level (if you have one). Note that an M-spike may be called an M-protein, abnormal protein band, paraprotein, or something else on the SPEP test results. You would also want to look at your creatinine, calcium, and hemoglobin levels on your CBC and CMP tests.
Without knowing all the above information, it's hard to tell if you may be looking at MGUS or smoldering multiple myeloma or something else. If your mom had amyloidosis, you would want to make sure that they run a Congo red stain test when doing the bone marrow biopsy.
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Multibilly - Name: Multibilly
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Me
- When were you/they diagnosed?: Smoldering, Nov, 2012
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