Abstract
Macroglobulinemia of Waldenström is a disease of the reticuloendotherial system characterized by a marked increase in the serum gamma macroglobulin concentration.
This syndrome bears some clinical resemblance to both multiple myeloma and chronic lymphatic leukemia and therefore has to be differentiated from these diseases especially the former.
The differentiation from multiple myeloma is made by longer and more benign clinical course, the lack of osteolytic bone lesions and the infrequent finding of Bence Jones proteinemia.
The next clinical chemical findings may be necessary to diagnose as Waldenström's macroglobulinemia : (1) characteristics of IgM in serum protein is monoclonal, (2) concentration of monoclonal IgM is greater than 1.0 g/dl in serum, and (3) monoclonal IgM fraction in serum is more than 15 per cent of total serum protein with ultracentrifugation.
In this paper the results of clinical laboratory findings which examined 2 cases of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia in our hospital have been investigated and the criteria for the diagnosis of this disease have been reevaluated.
