{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,30]],"date-time":"2026-05-30T00:57:23Z","timestamp":1780102643852,"version":"3.54.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"S. Karger AG","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2009,2,17]],"date-time":"2009-02-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1234828800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/pages\/terms-and-conditions"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2009,2,17]],"date-time":"2009-02-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1234828800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/pages\/terms-and-conditions"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Acta Haematol"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Serum soluble interleukin-6 receptor (sIL\u00b76R) concentrations were measured in 50 patients with plasma cell dyscrasias using a commercially available immunoenzymatic assay kit. There were 40 patients with multiple myeloma (MM), 5 patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), 3 patients with solitary plasmacytoma (SPC), 1 patient with chronic myelogenous leukaemia and multiple myeloma (CML + MM), and 1 patient with plasma cell leukaemia (PCL). We found that serum sIL-6R concentrations were higher in MM patients (62.53 \u00b1 38.85 ng\/ml) than in 20 normal volunteers studied (36.75 \u00b1 13.79 ng\/ml) (p &lt; 0.01). The cut-off value of 65 ng\/ml seen in 2 of our controls was arbitrarily taken as the upper limit of the control range for serum sIL-6R; according to this criterion, 14 patients with MM (35%), 1 patient with SPC, the unique patient with CML + MM, and the unique patient with PCL had elevated concentrations of the receptor. Patients with MGUS had normal sIL-6R values. In MM patients, serum sIL-6R levels correlated with the clinical phase of the disease: they were elevated in patients with early or late active disease and ranged within normal limits in patients with plateau-phase disease (p &lt; 0.001). Thirteen of 27 patients with active MM had elevated serum sIL-6R values, i.e. 48.1%, but only 1 out of 13 patients with disease in the plateau phase, i.e. 7.7% (p &lt; 0.05). Furthermore, in the entire group of MM patients, serum sIL-6R levels correlated with the concentrations of serum \u03b22-microglobulin (p &lt; 0.02), CRP (p &lt; 0.01), ferritin (p &lt; 0.01) and LDH (p &lt; 0.01), while they did not correlate with disease stage, haemoglobin levels, proportion of marrow myeloma cells, the values of serum IL-6, the levels of serum albumin, or the grade of bone lesions. We conclude that elevated serum sIL-6R levels should be related to the growth of myeloma cells and suggest that serum sIL-6R concentrations may be used as an indicator of disease activity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1159\/000203682","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2009,2,18]],"date-time":"2009-02-18T15:14:43Z","timestamp":1234970083000},"page":"191-195","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":40,"title":["Serum Levels of Soluble IL-6 Receptor in Multiple Myeloma as Indicator of Disease Activity"],"prefix":"10.1159","author":[{"given":"Helen","family":"Papadaki","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Despina","family":"Kyriakou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andreas","family":"Foudoulakis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fotini","family":"Markidou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Michael","family":"Alexandrakis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"George D.","family":"Eliopoulos","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"127","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2009,2,17]]},"container-title":["Acta Haematologica"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.karger.com\/Article\/Pdf\/203682","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/article-pdf\/doi\/10.1159\/000203682","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T11:36:14Z","timestamp":1777462574000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/karger.com\/article\/doi\/10.1159\/000203682"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2009,2,17]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1159\/000203682","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0001-5792","1421-9662"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0001-5792","type":"print"},{"value":"1421-9662","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2009,2,17]]}}}