[The clinicopathologic features and differential diagnosis of ocular Kimura disease and epithelioid hemangioma]

Objective: To investigate the clinicopathologic features and differential diagnosis of ocular Kimura disease (KD) and epithelioid hemangioma. Methods: It was a retrospective case series study. The data of 10 patients with ocular KD and 3 patients with ocular epithelioid hemangioma from the Pathology Department of Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University from January 2010 to December 2019 were retrospectively analyzed, including clinical manifestations, morphology and immunophenotypes. Results: Among patients with ocular KD, there were 9 males and 1 female with an age from 7 to 75 years (mean, 30 years). There were 6 unilateral cases and 4 bilateral cases. The disease mainly involved the orbit in 3 patients, the lacrimal gland in 5 patients and the eyelid in 2 patients. The ophthalmic presentation included a palpable periorbital or eyelid mass with eyelid swelling and ptosis, proptosis and displacement of the eyeball, and ocular dysmotility. Three patients had a history of lymphadenopathy. The disease course ranged from 6 months to 7 years (mean, 34 months). All the patients had elevated peripheral blood eosinophilia. Three patients of ocular epithelioid hemangioma were all males with age from 25 to 60 years old. They were all unilateral cases with 1 right eye and 2 left eyes. The disease respectively involved eyelid and orbit, the eyebrow skin and the inner canthus skin. They presented with eyelid swelling, orbital mass or subcutaneous nodule for 5 months to 2 years. All patients (11 eyes) with KD underwent incisional or excisional biopsy. The histopathology revealed follicular hyperplasia of lymphoid tissue with active germinal centers in orbital fibroadipose tissue. There were massive interfollicular eosinophils with eosinophilic microabscesses. Some swelling endothelial cells of proliferating vessels were seen. All the 3 patients (3 eyes) with ocular epithelioid hemangioma underwent excision of the lesions. Histopathological examination showed proliferation of small and medium blood vessels. The vessels were lined by endothelial cells with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm which protruded into the lumen. The endothelial cells were positive for CD31, factor Ⅷ-related antigen and E26 transformation-specific related gene immunohistochemically. There was a moderate amount of lymphocytes, plasma cells and eosinophils surrounding blood vessels without eosinophilic microabscess. Conclusions: Both ocular KD and epithelioid hemangioma are more commonly seen in males and share the common histopathological features of vascular proliferation, swelling endothelial cells and eosinophilic infiltration. KD is an allergic benign lymphoid tissue proliferation characteristic of massive eosinophilic infiltration, whereas epithelioid hemangioma is a benign neoplasm of blood vessels with plump and epithelioid endothelial cells. (Chin J Ophthalmol, 2021, 57: 689-695).