Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance in General Practice

Abstract

Background: In addition to progression to lymphoproliferative diseases, patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) appear to suffer from other types of comorbidities although the extent to which MGUS contributes to these comorbidities is unclear. The aim of this study is to evaluate the presence of patients with MGUS who attend general practice (GP) in our healthcare area, as well as to describe the comorbidities and abnormal blood test results associated with these patients.Methods: A retrospective study was carried out, where demographic data, comorbidities, and results of some analytical parameters were collected from 1201 patients who visited their general practice physician: 201 patients with a monoclonal protein detected, and 1000 patients without presence of monoclonal protein.Main findings: Out of the 6307 proteinograms performed on patients from GP, 201 presented an M-protein (3.2%). The presence of MGUS increased with age and was significantly higher in men than in women (55.7% vs 44.3%, p<0.05). We found that the most frequently associated comorbidities with MGUS are renal and cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and bone lesions, anemia, and hyperlipidemia. There was a significant association between MGUS and the following blood parameters: hemoglobin, leukocytes, neutrophils, monocytes, proteins, albumin, globulin and creatinine; as well as for the indices neutrophil-to-lymphocyte, monocyte-to-lymphocyte and albumin-to-globulin ratio.Principal conclusions: We conclude that MGUS is a common premalignant plasma cell disorder in general practice patients, the prevalence of which increases with age. Likewise, a series of blood parameters and comorbidities associated with MGUS that support the need to implement a program for early detection and monitoring of MGUS was described.Key words: MGUS, paraprotein, general practice, comorbidities