[Diagnosis delay of multiple myeloma: report of 22 cases in an internal medicine department of Dakar].

Reported is a retrospective study conducted on in patients with multiple myeloma diagnosed from January 1990 to December 2000 in the departement of Internal Medicine I of Dakar University Hospital. Twenty-two patients were included. The mean age was 55 years (range 29-76). The sex ratio (male to female) was 2.6 (they were 16 males and 6 females). The presenting clinical features were dominated by bone manifestations with diffuse pain (41%) followed by pathologic fractures (22.27%) and lumbar pain (13.6%). At the hospital admission the type of clinical manifestations recorded were related to bone (91% general (60%), neurologic (36%) and infection (36%). The biological exams documented an anemia in 20 cases (91%) and increased serum protein in 13 cases (59%) and hypercalcemia in 11 cases (50%) and renal insufficiency in 6 cases (27%). Immunoelectrophoresis had been performed in 6 cases and revaled 4 cases of IgG and 2 cases of light chain myeloma. On the skeletal radiological exams it has been found lytic bone lesions in 66.6 % of cases. diffuse bone rarefaction (38.88%), pathological fractures (38.88%) and vertebral collapses (18.18%). The bone marrow aspiration showed in 17 cases over 19 a medullary dystrophic plasmocytosis. According to the Salmon and Durie classification 68% of the patients were pointed in stage III. Comparing our results to the series, we figure out our patients younger at the time of the diagnosis and an important diagnosis delay as previously suggested in the African litterature. This is confirmed by the fact that 68% of patients were one Salmon and Durie stage III. the frequency of severe anemia and pathological fractures We invite practitionners to conduct systematic exploration of mild symptoms like lumbar pain.