Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinaemia With Xanthomatosis and Hypercholesterolaemia

Abstract

Even though most cases of M‐globulinaemia reveal low serum cholesterol values, a few cases are on record in which hypercholesterolaemia and/or xanthomatosis have been associated with IgG or IgA para‐proteinaemia. In most of the latter cases a familial origin of the disease was not disclosed, and a causal relationship between the paraproteinaemia and the lipoid disease was therefore assumed. A report is presented of a case associated with Waldenström's macroglobulinaemia—a combination which does not seem to have been described before. This case probably represents a fortuitous coincidence of the two diseases, as electrophoresis of the serum lipoproteins in the patient's sister revealed lipoid changes, although this sister had no xanthomata and her serum cholesterol level was only at the upper limit of normal. Thus a familial genesis can be excluded only by an analysis of serum lipoids in members of the family.