melphalan and Aortic-Valve-Insufficiency

Monoclonal gammopathy of type IgG-lambda (IgG concentration 27.8 g/l) was discovered by chance in a 66-year-old woman with aortic and mitral valve disease. The patient declined any further diagnostic procedures. Three months later she experienced severe pain in the lumbar spine and developed decompensated cardiac failure with pulmonary and ankle edema. The IgG concentration had risen to 50.5 g/l. Echocardiography showed a large pericardial effusion and 600 ml of bloodstained fluid containing numerous plasma cells was aspirated (total protein 81.8 g/l, gamma-globulin 38.9%). Iliac crest biopsy showed diffuse infiltration with polymorphic plasma cells, but the differential count in peripheral blood was unremarkable. Multiple myeloma of Stage IIa was diagnosed and she was given cytostatic therapy with 17.5 mg melphalan and 112 mg methylprednisolone daily by mouth (for 4 days at intervals of 6 weeks). Though at first the IgG concentration fell, it later rose again. The beta 2-microglobulin level was raised at 30 mg/l. After three cycles of chemotherapy the patient complained of severe pain in the hips and thighs. The blood film now showed numerous, predominantly immature plasma cells. A few days later, having been ill for four months in all, she died, showing all the signs and symptoms of plasma cell leukaemia.

Topics: Aged; Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; Aortic Valve Insufficiency; Drug Therapy, Combination; Female; Humans; Immunoglobulin lambda-Chains; Leukemia, Plasma Cell; Melphalan; Methylprednisolone; Mitral Valve Stenosis; Multiple Myeloma; Pericardial Effusion; Plasma Cells