Multicentric plasma cell variant Castleman’s disease mimicking intrapulmonary malignancy
- J Buckley1,
- P J Shaw2,
- J D Cartledge1,
- R F Miller1
- 1Department of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Camden and Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust, Mortimer Market Centre, London WC1E 6AU, UK
- 2Directorate of Imaging, Radiology Department, University College London Hospitals, NHS Trust, London WC1E 6AU, UK
- Correspondence to: Dr R Miller; rmiller{at}gum.ucl.ac.uk
- Accepted 17 May 2002
Multicentric Castleman’s disease (CD) is an unusual B cell lymphoproliferative disorder in HIV infected individuals,1 and is caused by human herpesvirus 8.
A 41 year old white homosexual man presented in December 2000 with a 3 month history of weight loss, fevers, slowly progressive cervical lymphadenopathy, and oro-cutaneous Kaposi’s sarcoma. At this time he was found to be HIV-1 antibody positive; baseline investigations showed CD4 count of 120 cells × 106/l, HIV viral load 130 000 copies/ml, Hb = 8.4 g/dl, white blood count = 2.8 × 109/l, and platelet count 118 × 109/l. A bone marrow aspirate showed a hypercellular marrow with marked dysplasia of all three cell lines. These changes were ascribed to HIV infection. A chest radiograph was normal. Antiretroviral therapy with stavudine, lamivudine, and efavirenz, and anti-pneumocystis prophylaxis with co-trimoxazole was …
