HCV Infection and Cryoglobulinemia

The first observation of cold-induced precipitation of serum proteins dates back to 1933, when Wintrobe and Buell first described an unusual case of multiple myeloma in a woman whose serum reversibly precipitated at cold temperatures. In 1947 Lerner and Watson showed cold-precipitable proteins to be gammaglobulins and called them ‘cryoglobulins’ and the corresponding clinical condition ‘cryoglobulinemia’. Meltzer and Franklin in 1966 provided an accurate description of the typical clinical sympt