The Matter of Kidney Biopsy in Monoclonal Gammopathy of Renal Significance: A Case Report of a New Pattern of Immunoglobulin-Storing Histiocytosis

Monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS) represents a group of disorders, characterized by paraproteinemia which causes renal damage. These disorders never meet the diagnostic criteria for multiple myeloma (MM) or lymphoproliferative disease. Crystal-storing histiocytosis is one of the rarest patterns of MGRS, characterized by an accumulation of light chains of crystals within histiocyte's cytoplasm, located in bone marrow or other extramedullary sites such as the kidney, cornea, or thyme. A very few cases have been described as immunoglobulin-storing histiocytosis (IgSH) without evidence of crystals. In the recent literature, only 3 cases of IgSH have been described so far, none renal. In all cases, these very peculiar histopathological patterns are associated with lymphoproliferative or plasma cellular disorders. Here, we report a very unusual IgSH pattern in a kidney biopsy, which led to prompt detection and early therapeutic intervention, in a patient with otherwise misdiagnosed MGRS.