[Angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy. Anatomoclinical and immunological study of a case]

The clinical course of a 54-year-old man with generalized lymphadenopathy bearing all physical, laboratory and histologic characteristics of angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy with dysproteinemia is described. Morphologic and laboratory features of a hyperimmune state with autoimmune hemolytic anemia, elevated cold agglutinin levels and polyclonal gammopathy, but with paradoxical cutaneous anergy and decrease in blood T-lymphocytes, were found. Therapy with levamisole was without significant benefit and the patient died 2 months after initial diagnosis. Our findings give further support to the contention that this disease is an abnormal, but non-neoplastic, immune reaction resulting from a loss of suppressor T cells with hyperfunction of the B lymphocyte system.