Abstract
Angio-immunoblastic lymphadenopathy is a systemic disease, of which prognosis is usually unfavorable, characterized by generalized lymphadenopathy consisting of dendritic small vessels with swollen endothelial cells and the proliferation of so called immunoblasts. Fever and dysproteinemia are frequently present. Imprints of lymph node biopsies obtained from 11 patients with this disease revealed the pleomorphic cellular findings of the proliferation of plasmacytoid cells and large lymphoid celle in addition to small lymphoid cells, small lymphocytes and prolymphocytes (May-Giemsa's stain).
Both plasmacytoid cells and large lymphoid cells are included in so-called immunoblasts in a wide sense. Patients with high frequencies of plasmacytoid cells and/or large lymphoid cells in imprints of lymph node biopsies were frequently suffered from fever, high serum LDH level and/or decreased lymphocyte counts in the peripheral blood. They often had poor response to therapies, resulted in unfavorable prognosis. Therefore, it was suspected that the cystological findings of lymph nodes were correlative to the clinical findings and prognoses of patients with this disease.
