POEMS syndrome: Failure of newly suggested diagnostic criteria to anticipate the development of the syndrome

Abstract POEMS syndrome is a unique clinical entity. Although it's a diagnosis of exclusion, it was previously described by the presence of several typical characteristics as paraproteinemia, polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, and skin changes. Recently, new criteria were proposed, and the presence of two major and one minor criterion was claimed to suffice for a diagnosis. Both methods considered other important characteristics germane to the syndrome unessential for diagnosis. Retrospective evaluation of patients with lymphoproliferative disease was carried out to reveal the presence of the syndrome according to these different methods. Patients' clinical progression during follow‐up will be used to validate the criteria's sensitivity and specificity. Six hundred twenty‐nine consecutive files of patients with paraproteinemia who were followed‐up at a tertiary medical center were reviewed. Of 12 patients who fulfilled the new criteria for diagnosis of POEMS, 3 remain stable during long‐term follow‐up and only 5 finally developed the full‐blown syndrome. Four patients developed other diseases that accounted for their clinical findings. Patients presenting with neuronal vasculitic changes on biopsy, κ light‐chain monoclonal gammopathy, and cryoglobulinemia were unlikely to develop POEMS syndrome, even though they fulfilled the newly suggested criteria. Although they are not in the criteria, sclerotic bone lesions were found only in patients who eventually developed the full syndrome. The diagnosis of POEMS syndrome according to the newly suggested criteria should not be definitive in the presence of atypical clinical features of the syndrome. Am. J. Hematol. 79:316–318, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.