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Published on: July 15, 2015
Estimated Whole Blood Viscosity in Smoldering Multiple Myeloma: Preliminary Data from a Retrospective Single Center
Melania Carlisi1, Rosalia Lo Presti2, Sofia Indelicato1
1Department of Health Promotion, Mother and Child Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
Purpose:
In recent years, several reports have been available about the hemorheological profile in plasma cell dyscrasias, but a specific mention of smoldering multiple myeloma is present in few papers. Therefore, we decideded to evaluate the calculated whole blood viscosity and some important related laboratory parameters in this clinical condition.
Patients And Methods:
We performed a specific analysis aimed to evaluate the calculated blood viscosity using the de Simone formula, and some laboratory parameters and erythrocyte indices, in a cohort of 80 patients with smoldering multiple myeloma (median age 68.50; 40 male and 40 female, median follow-up of 26 months).
Results:
From our analysis it emerges that in IgA smoldering multiple myeloma there is a greater bone marrow plasma cell infiltration and a reduction of albumin levels. Furthermore, in relation to the risk of progression into multiple myeloma we observed, in the non-low risk subgroup, a significant increase in total proteinemia, without any variation in blood viscosity. The latter is in fact almost exclusively dependent on hematocrit values, and it is negatively correlated to the ratio of free light chains.
Conclusion:
In our group of smoldering multiple myeloma patients the calculated whole blood viscosity does not appear to change with the risk of disease progression, and it seems to depend almost exclusively on hematocrit value. Furthermore, we observed a negative correlation between blood viscosity and rFLC in which it might depend on the fact that the latter parameter is negatively correlated with the hematocrit values, that significantly affect blood viscosity.