Kikuchi's disease: report of 2 cases and a brief review of the literature.

Kikuchi's lymphadenitis is a histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis without granulocytic infiltration, with fever and generally with a benign course, despite its pathologic resemblance to malignant lymphoma. The illness usually begins with localized cervical adenopathy in young adult females, predominantly before the fourth decade of life. Clinically, several agents could be the cause of such an illness--toxoplasmosis, herpes group viral infection, cat scratch disease, lymphoma, SLE and other infectious agents. The diagnosis is made by using a histological technique. The lymph node biopsy reveals fibrinoid necrosis, loss of lymph node structure with many histiocytes and an absence of granulomatous reaction. The immunohistochemical analysis shows that the main affected cellular components are the T cells. Laboratory exams show an erythrocyte sedimentation increase, neutropenia, leukopenia and lymphocytosis. We describe two cases that were followed since 1994 and 1996, respectively. Both were females under 25 years old, who developed a febrile disease with lymphadenopathy. Lymph node biopsies showed necrotizing lymphadenitis without granulocytic infiltrations. The patients had no evidence of other systemic diseases. Our objectives are to present a rare cause of febrile disease with enlargement of cervical lymph nodes, to review Kikuchi's disease, and to alert the medical community to this rare cause of fever and lymphadenopathy.