ArticleAnnals of medicine2026
Performance and additional benefits of MALDI-TOF-MS in M-protein detection in plasma cell disorders.
Article in Annals of medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposesCurrent methods for detecting monoclonal (M) proteins, such as immunofixation electrophoresis (IFE), serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP) and serum free light chains (sFLC), are limited by insufficient sensitivity and suboptimal efficiency. This study evaluated the performance and supplementary value of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) for the detection of M-protein.
methodsThe M protein in the blood samples of 137 newly diagnosed plasma cell disorder (PCD) patients were detected using MALDI-TOF-MS. Using SPEP/IFE/sFLC as the gold standard, the performance of MALDI‑TOF MS was assessed; discrepant results were confirmed by urine IFE.
resultsThe cohort included multiple PCD subtypes, detailly, 116 multiple myeloma (MM, 84.7%), 7 amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis (5.1%), 6 MM combined with AL amyloidosis (4.4%), 4 monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS, 2.9%), and others. Serum-based MALDI-TOF-MS demonstrated a high detection rate for M-protein identification compared to SPEP, serum IFE, sFLC and urine IFE (98.5% vs. 75.9% vs. 86.9% vs. 71.5% vs. 76.0%). Plasma-based testing achieved a concordance rate of 89.1% (122/137). Using IFE/sFLC results as the gold standard, the sensitivity of MALDI-TOF-MS for the identification of κ and λ light chains (LC) was 75.8% and 80.0%, respectively. For IgG and IgA identification, the sensitivity of MALDI-TOF-MS was 93.5% (58/62) and 65.5% (19/29), respectively. Additionally, MALDI-TOF-MS detected LC glycosylation in 17 patients and other post-translational modifications (PTMs) in 4 patients. Notably, post-treatment monitoring revealed that two patients with eliminated glycosylation peaks achieved complete response, while one with persistent glycosylation had a very good partial response.
conclusionsMALDI-TOF-MS is a reliable tool for M-protein detection, offering high detection rate, LC glycosylation identification, and PTM analysis. Additionally, in a small cohort, we observed that changes in the abnormal peaks detected by MALDI-TOF-MS may correlate with treatment response.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.