1989 Volume 28 Issue 3 Pages 450-454
A case of malignant histiocytosis is reported. A 6-year-old boy was admitted to our hospital, complaining of bilateral cervical lymphnode swelling accompanied by fever. A lymphnode was biopsied, and immediately an imprint preparation and a frozen tissue section were made. Cytologically, scattered atypical cells, with basophilic cytoplasm an increased amount of chromatin, and slightly indented nuclei with prominent nucleoli, were found to be intermingled with small lymphocytes. Erythrophagocytosis of atypical cells was observed frequently. We concluded that these atypical cells were histiocytic tumor cells. In the frozen tissue section, vigorous proliferation of the atypical cells formerly seen in the imprint preparation, was observed in the parafollicular area and the medullary sinus of the lymph node. The diagnosis of malignant histiocytosis was made based on the combination of cytological and histological findings. In this case, cytological findings from the imprint preparation played a very important role in the rapid diagnosis of the disease.
