Cutaneous manifestations of dysproteinemias.

A number of cutaneous lesions may represent signs of underlying dysproteinemia. The lesions may result from direct infiltration by plasmacytes and immunoblasts--such as plasmacytomas seen with multiple myeloma--or they may result from indirect effects of the immunoglobulins by a number of different mechanisms. Because the spectrum of cutaneous lesions is so large and at times nonspecific, it is important to keep dysproteinemia in one's differential diagnosis at all times. Careful monitoring of these patients is important since the latency period for the actual development of a plasma cell malignancy may be years.