[Primary myelodysplastic syndrome. Prognostic factors and frequent appearance of monoclonal and polyclonal gammopathies].

Prognostic factors were obtained by retrospective analysis of data on 44 patients (34 men and ten women; average age 64 +/- 13 years) with a primary myelodysplastic syndrome. The most important factors for a poor prognosis were the presence of more than 5% blast cells in the bone marrow (P = 0.001), serum platelet count of less than 150,000/microliters (P = 0.05), serum white cell count less than 3000/microliters (not significant) and serum lactate dehydrogenase concentration greater than 240 U/l (P = 0.05). Protein electrophoresis revealed a polyclonal hypergammaglobulinaemia in 15 of 38 patients; in eight of 17 patients with partly normal curve pattern at protein electrophoresis, a monoclonal gammopathy was demonstrated (monoclonal gradient 3.5 g/dl) by immunoelectrophoresis or immunofixation. No prognostic significance could be established for these gammopathies.