Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology of Kimura's Lymphadenitis with Characteristic Warthin-Finkeldey Type Polykaryocytes: A Case Report

Kim, Yeon Mee; Cho, Hye Je

Abstract

Kimura's disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder of unknown etiology, presenting usually as a painless subcutaneous swelling in the head and neck region or in the lymph nodes. We experienced a case of Kimura's lymphadenitis with characteristic Warthin-Finkeldey type polykaryocytes by fine needle aspiration cytology. The patient was a 10 - year old male, with two enlarged lymph nodes in the postauricular area. Fine needle aspiration cytology from the lymph nodes disclosed hypercellular smears with some scattered eosinophils and polykaryocytes in a polymorphous lymphoid background. There were also fragmented vessel walls and activated endothelial cell clusters in the slightly necrotic background. The Warthin-Finkeldey type polykaryocytes had three to thirty nuclei and prominent nucleoli with ill defined cytoplasmic borders. Their nuclei were arranged in grapevine or ring shaped clusters. As these polykaryocytes could also be found in lymph nodes and extranodal tissues of both reactive and neoplastic lymphoid disorders, polykaryocytes themselves are clinically nonspecific. However, the morphologic features of the Warthin-Finkeldey type giant cells are quite different from the foreign body type or Langhans' type giant cells. When the characteristic cytologic features of Kimura's disease such as significant number of eosinophils in a background of lymphoid cells asd proliferation of vessels and endothelial cells are also observed in the smear, it is possible to suggest this diagnosis in the appropriate clinical setting.