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Medical Definition of Plasma cell leukaemia
1. An unusual disease characterised by leukocytosis and other signs and symptoms that are suggestive of leukaemia, in association with diffuse infiltrations and aggregates of plasma cells in the spleen, liver, bone marrow, and lymph nodes, and the presence of considerable numbers of plasma cells in the circulating blood; the total number of leukocytes in the latter may range from normal levels to 80,000 or 90,000 per cu mm, and 5 to 90% may be plasma cells; multiple myelomas are observed in some examples of plasma cell leukaemia, but discrete nodules are not formed in bone. Although there are other clinicopathologic differences in the two conditions, they may be phases of the same basic process. (05 Mar 2000)