Immunologic and electronmicroscopic characteristics of a case of immunoblastic lymphadenopathy

A new disease entity of the lymphoid system has recently been reported by Lukes and Tindle as immunoblastic lymphadenopathy and by Frizzera and associates as angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy with dysproteinemia. Reported herein are cytologic, histologic, ultrastructural and immunologic studies of several tissues of a patient with this disorder. In addition to confirming the previous observations that the main cellular constituents in the affected tissue consist of immunoblast, plasmacytoid lymphocytes and plasma cells, the authors have demonstrated a profound deficiency of T lymphocytes in this patient. The previously described amorphous interstitial material appears to represent multiple small cytoplasmic fragments. The histiocytic component, which appears in variable amounts in this disease, in the reported case was very active in phagocytizing cellular and nuclear debris, some of which appeared to be lymphocytic in origin. A rubella infection preceded the onset of the disorder by 3 months.