A case of bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT) lymphoma in the patient with rheumatoid arthritis / 대한내과학회지

ABSTRACT

Bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue (BALT) lymphoma is a rare disorder and it is a characteristic subgroup of low-grade B-cell extranodal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that is classified as marginal zone lymphoma. We report here on a patient with rheumatoid arthritis who developed BALT lymphoma. She had no pulmonary symptoms and the pulmonary nodules were incidentally detected by routine chest radiography. Chest CT showed a 2.8cm sized ill-defined focal consolidation of homogenous attenuation in the posterobasal segment of the right lower lobe. The histological diagnosis from the wedge resection specimen revealed low grade B cell lymphoma of BALT. To the best of our knowledge, this case is the first to report BALT lymphoma that developed in a Korean patient with rheumatoid arthritis. BALT lymphoma should be included in the differential diagnosis of the pulmonary nodules in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.