The detection of peripheral blood plasma cells is clinically important, but difficult to perform by use of routine smears. To simplify the detection process, the peripheral blood T cells from ten patients with known active multiple myeloma were depleted using anti-CD2 coated magnetic beads. In all cases, there was enrichment of the immunoglobulin (Ig) positive cells after T cell depletion (mean enrichment factor, 3.4; median, 3.2; range, 1.2-5.1) with a mean pre-bead %Ig+ cells of 7.3 compared to 20.4 for the post-bead sample (p = 0.005). The monoclonal plasma cells were similarly enriched and more easily enumerated on the microscope slides prepared from the T cell depleted sample.