Disturbances of platelet function in patients with multiple myeloma

Coagulation disturbances in patients with multiple myeloma are presented. Platelet disfunction was especially observed, but only in patients with marked hyperproteinemia and a high level of immunoglobulins in plasma, whereas normal adhesion and aggregation were noticed in 3 out of 17 patients without protein disturbances. Chemotherapy as well as plasma exchange caused not only a decrease of the paraprotein level in plasma, but also a normalization of the failure previously observed in platelet function. Our experiments confirm the opinion that protein M in plasma is responsible for the disturbances observed in multiple myeloma.