Gamma-D paraproteinemia - a report of 16 cases

Paraproteins of the gammaD class are very rare, being found in only 0.3% to 3.0% of the cases of all paraproteinemias. They are difficult to detect and therefore sometimes not found or mis-diagnosed. In the 6500 cases of paraproteinemia we have diagnosed over the last eight years, 16 of them have been gammaD. Consistent with the reports of other gammaD paraproteinemias most of these 16 cases were of type L (13), most patients were male (11), the average age (55), was younger than that of patients suffering from other paraproteinemias, and in all cases the disease followed a rapidly malignant course.