Multiple polyps of the small intestine: an unusual feature of multiple myeloma

The various syndromes resulting from an abnormal proliferation or neoplasia of mature plasma cells or their immature precursors constitute the plasma cell dyscrasias. These may present as multiple myeloma (plasma cell myeloma), solitary myeloma, extraosseous plasma cell myeloma, or plasma cell leukaemia. We have encountered an unusual case of multiple myeloma in which a patient previously diagnosed by bone biopsy and immunoelectrophoresis, developed multiple non-obstructing polyps of the small intestine and at the oesophagogastric junction. On biopsy, these lesions had the classical histopathology pattern of multiple myeloma. This is the first case of myeloma polyps of the small intestine to be reported in the radiological literature. A 72-year-old white female was admitted in 1972 with a painful mass in the mandible which was diagnosed as myeloma. Two years later, a mass in the right gluteal area appeared. This was biopsied, diagnosed as myeloma, and treated with radiotherapy. In May, 1974, she was readmitted for evaluation of vague abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, and for treatment of heart failure and hypertension. There was no evidence of gastrointestinal bleeding.