[Cervical adenopathies in relation to AIDS. Course of histological aspects. Diagnostic and prognostic value]

Histopathologic appearances of lymph nodes during acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and related conditions are analyzed, with emphasis on the diagnostic and prognostic value of cervical gland biopsy at the lymphadenopathic stage. Details are given of the characteristics of the follicular hyperplasia of the lymph nodes (type I), which appears to be the initial lesion and is possibly regressive, and emphasis placed on the poor prognostic significance of the hyperplasia simulating a Castleman syndrome and of the forms simulating an angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy (type II). Findings suggest that the appearance, in a still hyperplastic lymph nodes, of foci of pseudo-angioimmunoblastic homogenization, of fibroedema with lymphoid depletion or conjunctival vascular proliferation may be the initial sign of a course towards the glandular atrophy (type III) or Kaposi's sarcoma which are the attribute of confirmed AIDS.