Multiple myeloma with a variant Burkitt-type translocation, t(2;8)(p12;q24), associated with hyperammonemia.

We report an 82-year-old Japanese woman with multiple myeloma (MM). She developed disorientation due to hyperammonemia after melphalan and prednisolone therapy and abruptly died with a rapid clinical course. Karyotypic analysis of bone marrow showed complex abnormalities including a variant Burkitt-type translocation, t(2;8)(p12;q24), but the patient had IgG-lambda type M-proteinemia. Although patients with MM associated with hyperammonemia have been sporadically reported and their prognosis is poor, specific chromosomal abnormalities in the lesion have not been well characterized. It is, therefore, important to accumulate such patients to find a possible relationship between hyperammonemia and chromosomal abnormalities.