Idiopathic multicentric Castleman's disease, infrequent cause of Lupus-like: case report

ABSTRACT

Castleman's disease (CD) or angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia includes a heterogeneous mix of reactive lymphoproliferative processes with well-defined histological features. However, they differ in their localization patterns, clinical expression and etiopathogenesis. There are 4 types, one of them is the multicentric CD that is not associated with any viruses and has re-cently been called idiopathic MCD (iMCD). iMCD is a lymphoproliferative disorder with specific histopathological characteristics, more than one region of affected lymph nodes and absence of infection associated to human herpesvirus 8 and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). iMCD covers multiple differential diagnoses and might simulate autoimmune diseases such as syste-mic lupus erythematosus. The aim of this article is to report the case of a patient with Castle-man's disease and lupus-like presentation. We present the case of a 38-year-old man without morbid history, who presented lumbago, fever, diaphoresis and asthenia with two months of evolution, associated to bilateral cervical adenopathies. General examinations result negative, antinuclear antibodies at a dilution of 1/640 were positive, and extractable nuclear antigens were positive suggesting moderate Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) plus secondary Sjö-gren's. Methylprednisolone and Hydroxycloroquine boli were thus initiated. The patient evolved with anasarca, severe anemia, acidosis, polyserositis and multiple mediastinal adenopathies. Immunoglobulin and cyclophosphamide were thus initiated. He later presented fever, throm-bocytopenia and nephrotic syndrome. Biopsy of cervical lymph node reported lymphadenitis with polyclonal plasmacytosis and concentric lymphoid hyperplasia, in agreement with iMCD. Treatment with Rituximab was initiated, which led to the favorable evolution of the patient. iMCD is a systemic inflammatory disease, its presentation corresponds to a constitutional syndrome resulting in a wide differential diagnosis. Every time suspicious adenopathies appear, they must be biopsied since this might lead to a definitive diagnosis