Citations

Over the past decade, a number of changes have occurred in the diagnostic evaluation, management, and long‐term follow‐up of patients with POEMS syndrome at our institution. This study included 291 patients with POEMS syndrome diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic between 1974 and 2014. Patients diagnosed after 2003 had more features of the syndrome identified at diagnosis and were more likely to receive an autologous transplant (49% versus 8%, P < 0.0001) and to have achieved a hematologic complete response (CR) to treatment (41% vs 25%, P < 0.0001). With 2273 person‐years of follow‐up, 10‐year overall survival (OS) was 62% (95% C.I., 56%, 67%). On multivariate analysis, the three factors associated with superior OS were younger age (RR 0.98 [0.96–1.00]), albumin greater‐than 3.2 g/dL (RR 0.5 [0.32–0.89]) and attainment of complete hematologic response (RR 0.4 [0.2, 0.9]). This study confirms the very good long‐term outcomes of patients with POEMS syndrome and identifies two new prognostic risk factors: albumin at diagnosis and attainment of complete hematologic response. Am. J. Hematol. 91:585–589, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A single monoclonal protein typically characterizes monoclonal gammopathies, but a small proportion may have more than one M protein identifiable. In the setting of symptomatic multiple myeloma (MM), the development of a new monoclonal protein following therapy is associated with better outcomes. As for the precursor conditions, monoclonal gammopathy undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM), there is limited information on the impact of a second monoclonal protein on the disease course, including progression and response to treatment. The outcomes of patients with MGUS and SMM with more than one monoclonal protein, after identifying 539 patients with biclonal proteins on electrophoresis and/or immunofixation, were reported. About 22 of 393 patients with MGUS/biclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (BGUS) progressed to SMM (6), MM (11), AL (3), or WM (2), and 5 of 16 patients with biclonal SMM progressed to MM. The rate of progression for BGUS was approximately 1% per year, which is similar to MGUS with one monoclonal protein. The median estimated time of progression of biclonal SMM was 2.6 years; similar to monoclonal SMM. For patients with biclonal MM, both M spikes responded to treatment and, upon relapse, the original dominant M protein remained dominant as the disease progressed. In conclusion, the presence of a second monoclonal protein does not appear to affect the progression of precursor states and suggests multiple monoclonal proteins do not clinically impact one another in the course of the disease. Am. J. Hematol. 91:473–475, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

AbstractDiagnostic imaging is integral to the evaluation of many emergency department (ED) patients. However, relatively little effort has been devoted to patient‐centered outcomes research (PCOR) in emergency diagnostic imaging. This article provides background on this topic and the conclusions of the 2015 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference PCOR work group regarding “Diagnostic Imaging in the Emergency Department: A Research Agenda to Optimize Utilization.” The goal was to determine a prioritized research agenda to establish which outcomes related to emergency diagnostic imaging are most important to patients, caregivers, and other key stakeholders and which methods will most optimally engage patients in the decision to undergo imaging. Case vignettes are used to emphasize these concepts as they relate to a patient's decision to seek care at an ED and the care received there. The authors discuss applicable research methods and approaches such as shared decision‐making that could facilitate better integration of patient‐centered outcomes and patient‐reported outcomes into decisions regarding emergency diagnostic imaging. Finally, based on a modified Delphi process involving members of the PCOR work group, prioritized research questions are proposed to advance the science of patient‐centered outcomes in ED diagnostic imaging.

Abstract BACKGROUND Analytically sensitive techniques for measuring minimal residual disease (MRD) in multiple myeloma (MM) currently require invasive and costly bone marrow aspiration. These methods include immunohistochemistry (IHC), flow cytometry, quantitative PCR, and next-generation sequencing. An ideal MM MRD test would be a serum-based test sensitive enough to detect low concentrations of Ig secreted from multifocal lesions. METHODS Patient serum with abundant M-protein before treatment was separated on a 1-dimensional SDS-PAGE gel, and the Ig light-chain (LC) band was excised, trypsin digested, and analyzed on a Q Exactive mass spectrometer by LC-MS/MS. We used the peptide's abundance and sequence to identify tryptic peptides that mapped to complementary determining regions of Ig LCs. The clonotypic target tryptic peptides were used to monitor MRD in subsequent serum samples with prior affinity enrichment. RESULTS Sixty-two patients were tested, 20 with no detectable disease by IHC and 42 with no detectable disease by 6-color flow cytometry. A target peptide that could be monitored was identified in 57 patients (91%). Of these 57, detectable disease by LC-MS/MS was found in 52 (91%). CONCLUSIONS The ability to use LC-MS/MS to measure disease in patients who are negative by bone marrow–based methodologies indicates that a serum-based approach has more analytical sensitivity and may be useful for measuring deeper responses to MM treatment. The method requires no bone marrow aspiration.