title: [Leading symptom: the M-gradient in electrophoresis].
abstract: A survey is given on development, proof and clinical importance of an M-gradient which is to be demarcated in the electrophoresis. A M-gradient refers to an excessive increase of the number of monoclonic immunoglobulins (= paraproteins). As investigation method the electrophoresis on agar or agarose, respectively, is best suited. The immunoelectrophoresis is necessary for the further differentiation into several classes and types as well as for the demarcation of pseudo-M-gradients. The proof of a M-gradient alone does not allow a diagnosis. M-gradients obligatorily appear in the plasmocytoma, in Waldenstroem's macroglobulinaemia and associated neoplasias of the lympho-plasma-cellular tissue. However, M-gradients can also be observed in carcinomas, chronic liver diseases and chronic inflammatory processes as well as in clinically healthy persons in individual cases. The differentiation according to the cause of the M-gradient is possible only then, when the total clinical picture is taken into consideration, in individual cases, however, according to the course of the disease.
mesh_terms: D004586:Electrophoresis; D006801:Humans; D007122:Immunoelectrophoresis; D007136:Immunoglobulins / Q000302:isolation & purification; D010265:Paraproteinemias / Q000175:diagnosis; D010266:Paraproteins / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D007136:Immunoglobulins; D010266:Paraproteins
vernacular_title: Leitsymptom: M-Gradient in der Elektrophorese