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Paraproteinemia



Paraproteinemia
Classification & external resources
ICD-9 273.1-273.2
DiseasesDB 9614
MeSH D010265

Paraproteinemia (also known as "monoclonal gammopathy") is the presence of excessive amounts of a single monoclonal gammaglobulin (in this case denominated "paraprotein") in the blood. It denotes an underlying immunoproliferative disorder.

Types

Paraproteinaemias may be categorised according to the type of monoclonal protein found in blood:

  • Light chains ("Bence Jones protein") only;
  • Heavy chains only;
  • Whole immunoglobulins (albeit often with an abnormal light / heavy chain ratio). In this case, the paraprotein goes under the name of "M-protein" ("M" for monoclonal). If immunoglobulins tend to precipitate within blood vessels with cold, that phenomenon takes the name of cryoglobulinaemia.

Possible causes

If no cause is identified, the term "monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance" is used.


 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Paraproteinemia". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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