Abstract:

Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal disorder of plasma cells which accumulate in the bone marrow leading to cytopenias, bone resorption, renal impairment, infection and the production of a monoclonal protein. Early screening programmes are crucial and important for early detection of the disease for better control of signs and symptoms of the disease which will finally control the disease so this study aims at assessing the likelihood of multiple myeloma among 50 years and above patients with lower back pain and biochemical and imaging abnormalities in patients with likelihood of multiple myeloma.

Methodology: This was a retrospective study involving fetching data from the medical files of patients presenting with lower back pain where a standard tool was used thereafter the data collected was entered in Microsoft excel for cleaning before being analysed using SPSS and thereafter presented inform of figures and tables.

Results: Among 206 collected data, only 6 (3.0%) patients were diagnosed with multiple myeloma. 203 (98.5%) patients had normal MRI findings, 204 (99.0%) patients had no any finding on imaging studies while on measuring biochemical parameters, 201 (97.6%) had normal protein levels. 200 (97.1%) had normal calcium levels, 203 (98.5%) had normal creatinine levels and 191 (92.7%) had normal alkaline phosphate levels.

Conclusion: This study described that majority of patients presenting with lower back pain at Bugando Medical Centre have no any likelihood of multiple myeloma and furthermore imaging and biochemical parameters among the patients were normal with only few patients presenting with abnormal biochemical parameters.