[CathyAnn]

Re: How to get results for other immunoglobulin levels?

by CathyAnn on Fri Mar 04, 2016 4:30 pm

Pinball,

Are you referring to the M-spike in your urine as 900 g/dL? If so, I think you mean 900 mg/dL. You mentioned in your original post that your serum M spikes were 1.99 g/dL and then 2.47 g/dL.

As far as the low IgM, it may make you more prone to some kinds of infections (particularly respiratory infections like bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, and ear infections) but may have no direct effect on your health. It does factor in to your risk for progression. See the article discuss in this thread,

"Review article - smoldering multiple myeloma" (started May 27, 2015)

for more information.

[pinball]

Re: How to get results for other immunoglobulin levels?

by pinball on Fri Mar 11, 2016 12:52 pm

Hi CathyAnn ,

You wrote: "Are you referring to the M-spike in your urine as 900 g/dL?"

You're right. I left out the decimal point. My value should have been displayed as "0.900 g/dL" (nearly 1.0 g/dL).

I'm always careful to include details when posting lab values, but though I included the "g/dL". Missing the decimal point sure did have a huge impact on the value that I quoted!

My first known IgG kappa M-spike was 0.100 g/dL in 2010 in my late 30's and now it is near 10x that value. In 2013 it was in the 0.375 range, 0.400-0.600 range in 2014, and 0.700 spring of 2015 and finally 0.900 as of October 2014. The Bence Jones protein just began to appear via UPEP as well as an elevated globulin, low albumin level also noted in the UPEP.

The low IgM developed fall thru late 2014 - at that time and early 2015 I had TWO severe (first time in my life) tooth abscesses, one of them eating into my jaw bone, resulting in fever / extreme facial swelling etc. We'll never know if those were tied to the low IgM or not. Over the past year I've also had for the first time since my 20's quite a few sore throat / fever episodes , sinus infections, and a period last spring where I had fevers for no reason near daily for 2 months (a full body PET-CT, tons of labs by infectious disease clinic as well as the myeloma clinic didn't turn up anything, and I was tested for everything - PCR testing for all sorts of diseases , blood cultures, u name it! all sorts of throat, nasal swabs, urine testing, chest xrays as well as the noted PET-CT to rule out any sort of malignant progression).

So we'll never know if the severe tooth infections which were a first for me were due to the low IgM which remains low or not (the same for sinus infections, frequent sore throat / fever episodes - these were common for me in my teens / 20's but vanished until last year) - as my individual IgG, IgA, IgM levels were never checked until 2014 when my case was referred to a major cancer center we'll never know if my IgM levels were on the low side historically or have declined as my M spike has increased.

My next workup which will take place next month will include another bone marrow biopsy (my third total, second at the cancer center, the 2014 bone marrow biopsy turned up 10% clonal plasma cells, 91% of all plasma cells were aberrant, small mature CD+ morphology was noted, etc) - will be interesting to see if my M spike and Bence Jones protein continue to increase as well as the upcoming bone marrow biopsy results compared to the past biopsy (bone marrow biopsy in 2013 was 5% plasma cells opposed to the 10% in 2014, hopefully it's not 20% this year and the "doubling" trend will cease, haha).

Thanks for the info and sorry about missing that decimal point in my previous post! I only have time to check these forums every so often.