LATE-ONSET MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS AND MONOCLO NAL GAMMOPATHY - A FORTUITOUS ASSOCIATION

Four patients older than 45 years with a central nervous system demyel inating disease associated to a monoclonal gammopathy are reported. Th e neurologic disease met the diagnostic criteria of multiple sclerosis , with the particularity of a late onset. Monoclonal paraproteinemia w as also present in the cerebrospinal fluid, associated with intratheca l immunoglobulin synthesis. The clinical data and the course of the di sease were comparable to the previous reports of late onset multiple s clerosis. A casual link between the dysglobulinemia and the neurologic al disease may not be demonstrated. However, such as association may u nderline the role of humoral processes in multiple sclerosis.