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Occurrence of monoclonal components in general practice: Clinical implications
Author(s) -
Aguzzi F.,
Bergami M. R.,
Gasparro C.,
Bellotti V.,
Merlini G.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
european journal of haematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1600-0609
pISSN - 0902-4441
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0609.1992.tb01584.x
Subject(s) - monoclonal , monoclonal antibody , immunofixation , medicine , immunology , antibody
We report on the occurrence of monoclonal components observed in a provincial hospital in northern Italy from 1987 to 1990. The monoclonal components were detected by visual inspection of high‐resolution acetate serum electrophoreses and typed by immunofixation. The percentage of monoclonal components increases steeply with age, and reaches a plateau of 7–8% in individuals over 55 years old. Besides the high percentage of monoclonal component, the other relevant finding of this study is that ˜80% of monoclonal components are of low concentration (<5 g/l). Most of these subjects with small monoclonal component passed undetected in the previous studies on the prognostic significance of monoclonal gammapathy. These findings indicate the need for a revision of the current concepts on the biological and clinical significance of MC discovered by chance.