Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia: A case report

Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care
Nejima KolikkatN A Uvais

Abstract

Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM) is a rare and slowly progressive disorder, a variant of lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma, which needs therapy only when patient becomes symptomatic. WM presents usually with constitutional symptoms, organomegaly, cytopenias, and hyperviscosity syndrome. This neoplasm is composed of small lymphocytes, plasmacytoid lymphocytes, and plasma cells that typically involve the bone marrow, and it is associated with an immunoglobulin M (IgM) gammopathy. Here we report the case a 60-year-old male with WM who initially presented with anemia and fatigue. The patient had no lymphadenopathy or any organomegaly. The diagnosis of WM was made after morphological and immunohistochemical examination of bone marrow of the patient along with an elevated serum IgM level. The patient responded well to plasmapheresis and chemotherapy. This case is unusual because the patient lacked the common clinical features of WM. A thorough clinical and hematological work up including serum electrophoresis, bone marrow study, and immunohistochemistry helps in distinguishing WM from other lymphomas and plasma cell dyscrasias.

References

Apr 30, 2004·Current Treatment Options in Oncology·Irene M Ghobrial, Thomas E Witzig
Mar 1, 2005·Journal of Clinical Oncology : Official Journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology·Meletios A DimopoulosSteven P Treon
Aug 30, 2006·Cancer Genetics and Cytogenetics·Roelandt F J SchopRafael Fonseca
Sep 7, 2006·American Journal of Hematology·Xavier LeleuSteven P Treon
Aug 10, 2019·Case Reports in Medicine·Paulo Zoé CostaCéu Evangelista

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
ESR
electrophoresis
bone marrow aspiration
biopsy

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