Angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy and angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma

To investigate the clinicopathological changes of angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy (AILD) and angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL), 5 cases of AILD and AITL were analyzed by using immunohistochemistry and Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. The clinical manifestations included general lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, fever and hematologic abnormalities. The diagnosis and differentiation of AILD and AITL were depended on the histopathologic features of lymphnodes biopsy. The presence of clusters of clear cells with variable atypia and positivity of T-cell marker were the most important diagnostic criterion for AITL. PCR analysis of TCR-beta rearrangement and EBV-genome was performed on 4 of 5 cases. All of the cases showed clonal rearrangement of TCR-beta and 3 of them were EBV-DNA positive. The results suggest that AILD might be a prelymphomatous lesion, related to EBV infection with a high incidence of developing to malignant lymphoma.