Histopathological and immunohistochemical study of Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease [Necrotizing Histiocytic Lymphadenitis]

ABSTRACT

In this work, 17 lymph node biopsies from 17 patients were studied. The cases showed a fragmentation of the lymph node [8/17], residual reactive germinal centers [11/17], focal paracortical necrosis [8/17] and large confluent areas of necrosis with disturbance of the normal architecture [9/17]. Karyorrhexis was a prominent feature [+++] in 10/17 cases, moderate [++] in 5/17 cases and mild [+] in 2/17 cases. The karyorrhectic process was intimately associated with coagulative necrosis. The present study showed that this disease has sufficient morphological and immunohistochemical characteristic features to allow for a precise histological diagnosis, in particular when these morphological features are seen within the right clinical context of a young female patient, a good general condition, localized cervical lymphadenopathy and fever of unknown origin