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Thymus in Langerhans histiocytosis
Friday 15 January 2010
Synopsis
Extensive medullary infiltration by typical Langerhans histiocytes can be associated with active destruction of thymic epithelium, medullary pseudocysts, and prevalence of calcospherites, some of which were in Langerhans histiocytes.
The presence of minimally affected Hassall bodies indicates that the thymus is probably normal prior to onset of disease.
Destruction of thymic epithelium occurs regularly in Langerhans histiocytosis, but it may be an insignificant epiphenomenon resulting from the affinity of Langerhans histiocytes for squamous epithelium.
References
Thymus in untreated systemic histiocytosis X. Bove KE, Hurtubise P, Wong KY. ediatr Pathol. 1985;4(1-2):99-115. PMID: 3879356
A clinicopathological study of histiocytosis X. Tsunematsu Y, Koide R, Watanabe S, Takahashi H, Morikawa Y, Shimizu K. Jpn J Clin Oncol. 1984 Dec;14(4):633-46. PMID: 6335190
Thymic changes in histiocytosis. Hamoudi AB, Newton WA Jr, Mancer K, Penn GM. Am J Clin Pathol. 1982 Feb;77(2):169-73. PMID: 6978063
