KIMURAS-DISEASE - A CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF 54 CHINESE PATIENTS

Kimura's disease, a chronic inflammatory condition of unknown cause, i s endemic in Orientals. The present study documented 54 cases of Kimur a's disease in patients from mainland China. The main clinical feature s of this series included young and middle-aged male predominance (mal e:female = 3.5:1), predilection for the head and neck regions, and a l ong duration. The disease presented as either single (31 cases) or mul tiple lesions (23 cases), and mainly involved subcutaneous tissues (29 cases), major salivary glands (21 cases), and lymph nodes (17 cases) in isolation or in combination. Histopathologically, the lesion was ch aracterized by hyperplasia of lymphoid tissue with well-developed lymp hoid follicles, marked infiltration of eosinophils, proliferation of t hin-walled capillary venules, and varying degrees of fibrosis. Distinc tive features of salivary glands and nodal involvement were also descr ibed. Differences between Kimura's disease and angiolymphoid hyperplas ia with eosinophilia, mostly reported in the West, were discussed to d raw attention to their distinction.