GENERALIZED GIANT LYMPH FOLLICLE HYPERPLASIA OF LYMPH NODES AND SPLEEN

Abstract

The clinical picture of a general adenopathy associated with enlargement of the spleen is encountered in a variety of disease conditions. The chronic diseases in adult life in which this association of symptoms is dominant are the leukemias, the infectious granulomas (under which are included Hodgkin's disease, syphilis and tuberculosis) and lymphosarcomatosis. However, in the last ten years we have accumulated three instances of a general adenopathy with splenomegaly which do not represent any of the groups just mentioned, and furnish examples of a condition which we believe has escaped recognition or at least, if seen, has not been reported or recorded as a disease entity. We base this statement on the fact that a diligent and conscientious search of the literature has failed to reveal more than one instance identical with, or even similar to, the group that is presented here. This case was reported by Becker¹in