Ocular Signs and Ocular Comorbidities in Monoclonal Gammopathy: Analysis of 80 Subjects

Purpose To examine the ocular signs of monoclonal gammopathy and to evaluate ocular comorbidities in subjects with monoclonal gammopathy. Patients and Methods . We analyzed patients from two large referral hematology centers in Budapest, diagnosed and/or treated with monoclonal gammopathy between 1997 and 2020. As a control group, randomly selected individuals of the same age group, without hematological disease, have been included. There were 160 eyes of 80 patients (38.75% males; age 67.61 ± 10.48 (range: 38–85) years) with monoclonal gammopathy and 86 eyes of 43 control subjects (32.56% males; age 62.44 ± 11.89 (range 37–86) years). The hematological diagnosis was MGUS in 9 (11.25%), multiple myeloma in 61 (76.25%), smoldering myeloma in 6 (7.50%), and amyloidosis or Waldenström macroglobulinemia in 2 cases (2.50%–2.50%). Before detailed ophthalmic examination with fundoscopy, 42 subjects with gammopathy (52.50%) and all controls filled the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) questionnaire.Results The OSDI score and best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were significantly worse in subjects with monoclonal gammopathy than in controls ( p =0.02; p =0.0005). Among gammopathy subjects, we observed potential corneal immunoglobulin deposition in 6 eyes of 4 (3.75%) patients. Ocular surface disease ( p =0.0001), posterior cortical cataract ( p =0.01), and cataract ( p =0.0001) were significantly more common among gammopathy subjects than in controls ( χ 2 test).Conclusions Ocular surface disease and cataract are more common, and BCVA is worse in patients with monoclonal gammopathy than in age-matched controls. Therefore, and due to the potential ocular signs and comorbidities of monoclonal gammopathy, we suggest a regular, yearly ophthalmic checkup of these patients to improve their quality of life.