[Clinical aspects of multiple myeloma]

This paper is a review of the patients with multiple myeloma, hospitalized at Clinic of Haematology in Sarajevo during the period from 1993 to 1998. This study encircles 45 patients; 18 males (40%) and 27 females (60%). Clinical and laboratory records, etiology, cytomorphology and radiography were analyzed in detail. The age of patients was 59.4 years (both males and females). The trends of disease showed increasing in 1994, 1997 and 1998, comparing it with other haematological malignancies (in 1993 the percent was 5.41, in 1998 was 15.83, and the average level, during the analyzed period, was 11.34%). The patients usually came in the terminal phase and that is the reason why median survival was 12 months. According to the results, the authors make a conclusion that there are some characteristics of this disease in individuals, comparing them with the results shown in relevant studies. They find the explanation in the exposure of the population to the chronic stress and deficit of energy caused by malnutrition during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina.