[Laboratory diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathies. Prospective study of 14 cases in Dakar, Senegal]

Monoclonal gammapathies are detected because of clinical symptoms and biological tests confirm their presence. Wishing to investigate these diseases, we carried out a series of biochemical tests on 14 patients from October 1995 to July 1996: protein, cryoglobulin, electrophoresis of proteins, proteinuria of BENCE JONES, C-reactive protein, weight measuring of immunoglobulins (Ig), immunofixation of Ig, creatinine and calcium. The results we obtained confirmed the presence of 14 cases of myeloma with: -9 IgG myelomas with 6 kappa light chains and 3 lambda light chains -4 IgA myelomas with 2 kappa light chains and 2 lambda light chains -1 IgG kappa, Ig lambda biclonal gammapathy united to a cryoglobulin of class I. We observed a predominance of the IgG over the others Ig and the kappa over the alpha light chains. The proteinuria of BENCE JONES was present among 3 patients, hypercalcemia among 4 patients and hypercreatininemia in 1 patient with chronic renal failure.