Clinical analysis of six cases of multiple myeloma first presenting with coagulopathy

This is a retrospective study on six multiple myeloma patients with upfront coagulopathy and bleeding. A detailed description and analysis of clinical characteristics, coagulation factor deficiencies, treatments and outcome of those six multiple myeloma patients are presented. All six patients presented with significant bleeding. One patient was detected with single factor X deficiency and another with single factor VII (FVII) deficiency, whereas four other patients had complex factor deficiencies. The time from symptom presentation to diagnosis ranged from 3 to 10 months. After correct diagnosis and coagulation factor supplementation, those patients were treated with bortezomib/adriamycin/dexamethasone (PAD) or melphalan/dexamethasone/thalidomide (MTD) regimen. It took 29-71 days (median time 46 days) to completely correct coagulation factor deficiencies since the start of therapy for multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma patients with acquired bleeding disorders may present with large, deep and multiple sites of haematoma or other types of significant bleeding, which may affect bone marrow examination in some of the cases. Patients may be easily misdiagnosed. The routine examinations of erythrocyte sedimentation rate, serum immunoglobulins and blood urine light chain are the key to diagnosis, hence requiring the treating physician to think broadly and look for traits suggesting myeloma as the underlying cause.