Immunochemical and clinical characteristic of series of 516 paraproteinemic patients.

A series of 516 cases of paraproteinemia was analysed. According to the class of paraprotein, there were 336 cases of paraprotein IgG (65.1%), 101 paraprotein IgA (19.6%), 53 paraprotein IgM (10.3%) and 1 case of paraprotein IgD (0.2%); only light chains were found in 15 cases (2.9%) and doubled paraproteins in 10 cases (1.9%). The average age of the series was 64.2 years. Clinically, there were 315 cases of myeloma, 24 cases of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, 126 cases of facultative paraproteinemia accompanying another disease, 16 cases of paraproteinemia in healthy persons and in 10 cases of paraproteinemia no precise diagnosis was made.