Peripheral Neuropathy Associated with Castheman's Disease

ABSTRACT

Castleman's disease, or giant Iymph node hyperplasia, is a Iymphoproliferative disorder which is characterized by Iymphoid hyperplasia with capillary proliferation, and divide histologically into two 0varieties, hyaline vascular and plasmal cell form. Some system manifestations are occasionally accompanied with the diseases, but peripheral neuropathy is a rarely reported manifestatlon of them and not in Korea. The present report describes a 40 year old female patient who had been admitted to Yonsei university medicai center because of progressive quadriparesis. On examination, she revealed various other manifestations such as hyperpigmentation, Iymphadenopathy, pitting edema, and bilateral papilledema. The electrophysiologic studies and sural nerve biopsy showed severe sensori-motor peripheral neuropathy showing features of mixed demyelinatlon and axonal degeneration. The Iymph node biopsy showed features compatible with Castleman's disease of hyaline vascular type. The recovery was poor over four month period despite of treatment with corticosterold.