[Primary macroglobulinemia with severe neutropenia, leading to a rapid development of septic shock]

A 88-year-old man was admitted because of the left chest pain due to herpes zoster for 1 week. Blood analyses and immunoelectrophoresis revealed anemia, severe neutropenia, rouleaux formation and IgM, lambda-type monoclonal gammopathy. The HE staining and peroxidase-anti-peroxidase staining of biopsy specimens of the cervical lymph node swelling appeared from the fifth hospital day, revealed an increase in atypical lymphocytes bearing IgM, lambda-type immunoglobulin. Then a diagnosis of primary macroglobulinemia was made. Although the patient's clinical findings transiently improved after chemotherapy with prednisolone and vindesine, he died of a septic shock which appeared after klebsiella pneumonia and sepsis. We reported an unusual case of primary macroglobulinemia with severe neutropenia, leading to a rapid development of septic shock after the chemotherapy.