Waldenström's macroglobulinemia

Abstract

Waldenström's macroglobulinemia is a neoplastic disorder of the B lymphocytes that is characterized by the infiltration of the bone marrow by a lymphoplasmatic clone that produces a monoclonal immunoglobulin which is always of the IgM type. WM is named after Jan Waldenström, a Swedish physician who first described two patients who presented with oronasal bleeding, lymphadenopathy, anemia and thrombocytopenia, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, high serum viscosity, normal bone radiographs, and bone marrow showing predominantly lymphoid cells. At that time electrophoresis of the serum proteins was not available; however, he attributed the hyperviscosity to an abnormal high-molecular-weight serum protein, which subsequently was shown to be a monoclonal immunoglobulin of the M class (IgM). Indeed, these two first patients presented with several of the most common features of WM, as have been subsequently described.