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Waldenström's macroglobulinemia is rare lymphoproliferative disorder characterized by the presence of a monoclonal IgM paraproteinemia. Cryoglobulinemia is a common sequela of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia present in 8-18% of the patients. Cryoglobulinemia has also been described as occurring after treatment with rituximab. In the previous report, the cryoglobulinemia was a transient phenomenon and did not carry any adverse effect. We present a case of an 80-year-old male with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia in whom the rituximab-induced cryoglobulinemia resulted in acute renal failure and a vasculitic rash. Cryoglobulins level reached a peak of 63%. The patient was successfully treated with plasmapheresis, chlorambucil and prednisone, with near-complete recovery of renal function. As this case illustrates, the rituximab-induced cryoglobulin is not always benign. Pre- and post-treatment monitoring of the cryoglobulin level is advised in these patients.

Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM) is a lymphoplasmacytic disorder with associated monoclonal gammopathy. A wide variety of neuropathies can be associated with WM, but most commonly it is a mild length-dependent sensory neuropathy of unclear etiology. Rituximab is a monoclonal antibody which suppresses mature B-cell populations. It has increasingly been used in wide applications including WM, especially in those cases with severe neuropathy. The highlighted case provides an example of rituximab treatment complication in a WM patient with mild sensory neuropathy that evolved to multiple mononeuropathies with features of systemic vasculitis and unusual conversion of type I to type II cryoglobulinemia.

Anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody has been successfully used to treat several self-immune diseases. The authors report the case of a 71 year-old female patient under the use of pegylated form of interferon á associated with ribavirin for the treatment of hepatitis C, who, after concluding the therapeutic program - negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) - developed a severe cutaneous vasculitis, receiving the diagnostic of type II mixed cryoglobulinemia. Four sessions of plasmapheresis were prescribed along the period of 11 days, with no result. The choice made was to administer anti-CD 20 monoclonal antibody (rituximab), 375 mg/m(2), per week, during four consecutive weeks. One could observe fast recovery from the purpura, as well as total remission of urticaria.