[Detection of paraproteinemia in blood donors. Results of systematic analysis of 3800 donors in Trieste].

A systematic analysis of plasma protein pattern performed by agarose gel electrophoresis has detected paraproteinemia in 13 out of 3800 blood donors in the district of Trieste. The variations in the incidence of monoclonal gammopathies in surveys of blood donors could be related not only with geographical origin and the age and sex distribution of the population studied but also with the sensitivity of the screening technique employed. The physiopathological and clinical implications of the detection of paraproteins favour the inclusion of the screening plasma electrophoretic analysis among the laboratory investigations for blood donors.