To the Editor: Hyperviscosity syndrome (HVS) is a life-threatening condition often occurring as complication of Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) but rarely in context rheumatic disease. Given its rarity, diagnosis can be delayed, leading to greater morbidity. Our interest was sparked by recent experience with patient rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who developed epistaxis progressively worsening dy...

THE HYPERVISCOSITY SYNDROME is a symptom complex associated with decreased blood fluidity, which is generally associated with an increase in erythrocyte mass. The mean cord blood hematocrit is 45±5% and 50 +5% in preterm and term infants respectively if they are born at sea level. Values are somewhat higher in infants born in locations at higher altitudes. A central venous hematocrit of 65% or ...

common complication in IgG myeloma. Its occurrence has been ascribed to the presence in the serum of high molecular weight polymers of the IgG proteins. Three patients with IgG myeloma and the clinical hyperviscosity syndrome were investigated, none of whom had IgG polymers in the serum by analytical ultracentrifugation. Relative serum viscosity in these patients ranged from 10 to 17.4 (normal ...

The clinical and immunologic data in a case of rheumatoid arthritis complicated by serum hyperviscosity are reported. The elevation in the serum viscosity was accompanied by the presence of intermediate immune complexes which were partially purified from the patient's serum by gel filtration chromatography. These complexes had a molecular weight of approximately 510,000 daltons and contained po...

Therapeutic apheresis (TA), as a way of rapidly eliminating harmful or excessive blood components such as plasma proteins (plasma exchange) or cells (leukapheresis and platelet apheresis), has found broad application in a vast array of hematologic disorders. The most common hematologic indications for TA are leukocytosis in acute leukemias and hyperviscosity syndrome secondary to plasma cell dy...

The association between hypergammaglobulinaemia and raised serum viscosity has been recognised for more than 40 years. Waldenstrom (1944) described three patients in whom macroglobulinaemia was associated with increased serum viscosity, and even earlier than this there had been reports of raised plasma viscosity in myelomatosis (Albers, 1937). Since these early reports many of the clinical feat...