Kappa Free Light
Light chains are proteins produced by immune cells called plasma cells.
Kappa free light. Therefore the serum free light chain test is a better predictor of outcome than the amount of m protein in the blood. This is usually indicative of something other than a blood cell dyscrasia such as kidney disease. What are light chains. We are very excited about this test value but mistrustful.
The exact normal ratio of kappa to lambda according to a novel polyclonal free light chain assay ranges from 0 26 to 1 65. A lower proportion of. His ratio has always been abnormal but never exceeding 2 0.
3 4 in patients with polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia or renal impairment free kappa and free lambda concentrations may increase due to increased immune production or decreased clearance respectively. Usually treatment knocks down the production of both the dud heavy chain iga in your case and the affected free light chain kappa in your case. 3 5 use of newly proposed renal reference intervals for the kappa lambda ratio improved the specificity of these assays from 93 to 99 in a study of 142 patients with dialysis dependent renal failure. There are two types of light chains.
The detection of urinary monoclonal kappa or lambda free light chains of immunoglobulin also know as bence jones proteins bjp are important for identifying and monitoring bcell malignancies too. The median survival from diagnosis was 30 mo for 52 patients with kappa lcd and 10 mo for 45 patients with lambda lcd p less than 0 0007. My husband s kappa free light chains have been on a steady rise over the past year going from 6 52 mg l directly out of transplant to 16 7 mg l. Reference intervals for the serum free light chain assays table 1 have been established in normal subjects and proposed for those with chronic kidney disease.
His new blood test revealed a kappa free light chain value of 6 29 mg l. The free light chain assay measures the total number of kappa and lambda free light chains in your system in your case the ones being produced in excess are of the kappa variety. Also called kappa and lambda light chains they link together with other proteins heavy chains to form immunoglobulins also known as antibodies that target and neutralize specific threats to the body such as bacteria and viruses. Both the kappa and the lambda chains can increase proportionately maintaining a normal ratio.