A review of electrophoretic patterns from a tertiary care nephrourology referral centre

Abstract

Protein electrophoresis is an easy, inexpensive test routinely used in clinical laboratories for screening protein abnormalities in various biological fluids. It is commonly used test to identify patients with multiple myeloma and other disorders of serum protein. Evaluation of patients with chronic kidney disease typically includes serum and urine protein electrophoresis. This retrospective study was undertaken to analyze the pattern of electrophoretic results at our exclusive nephrourology referral centre. All the patients who had been referred for electrophoresis (SPEP and UPEP) over the last two years (November 2012 to November 2014) were included in the study. A total of 1334 cases were referred for electrophoresis, out of which 830 samples were for serum protein electrophoresis. Major diseases diagnosed were infections/inflammation (42.4%), nephrotic syndrome (17.1%), liver disorders (7.1%), and multiple myeloma (6.4%). The main clinical presentation was acute renal failure preceding the diagnosis of myeloma. Hence it is necessary to look for potential renal impairment in myeloma patients.