Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, Sowmya Gayatri C, Swati Suravaram, Bharat Kumar Reddy, Dhanalakshmi A,
Volume 18, Issue 2 (Mar-Apr 2024)
Abstract
Background: ‘M’ proteins or paraproteins refer to immunoglobulins that are produced by clonal plasma cells and are a characteristic feature of monoclonal gammopathies. Routine electrophoresis on agarose gel and immunofixation can be used to detect immunoglobulin paraprotein (M-protein). We aimed to evaluate the performance of agarose gel electrophoresis alone and in combination with immunofixation for detecting serum M-proteins.
Methods: One hundred and twenty-three patients suspected of paraproteinemia were evaluated. Routine serum protein electrophoresis (SPE) and immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE) protocols were performed. Data from SPE, and SPE-IFE (gel images and electrophoretograms) were collected and reviewed.
Results: 21% cases were confirmed using the SPE-IFE combination, and among them, 33% had positive light chain (λ) only on IFE. Similarly, nine cases with biclonal gammopathy on SPE were characterized by IFE.
Conclusion: IFE can be a confirmatory test in cases where SPE results are not reliable and it can be a complementary test when characterization of the M protein detected on SPE is required.
