We encountered two patients with Kimura's disease (Eosinophilic granuloma of the soft tissue) in the same family. One was in a 22-year-old male and the other was in a 44year-old female, who was his mother. The former patient visited our institution in 1991, complaining of tumescences in the left parotid and auricular region, right post auricular region and bilateral cubital region. The mass was pathologically confirmed to be eosinophilic granuloma of the soft tissue. The serum IgE level rose up to 13700 IU/ml and the complete blood count showed granulocytosis up to 10400/mm3 with eosinophilia accounting for 57% of the total granulocytes. On the other hand, the mother complained of tumescences in the left parotid and post-auricular region. Her serum IgE level also increased to the same degree as her son's and the count of eosinophilic leukocytes showed an abnormal increase.
Previously, the etiology of Kimura's disease has been considerd to be type I allergy to Candida albicans. Although we checked 10 kinds of RAST on both patients, the increase of specific IgE level for Candida albicans was not detected. The result of RAST examination failed to prove that this disease was caused by type I allergy to Candida albicans.
