Lymph node infarction – a rare complication associated with disseminated intra vascular coagulation in a case of dengue fever

I Satish Rao¹ , Anand C Loya¹ , KS Ratnakar¹ and VR Srinivasan²

¹Department of Pathology, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India

²Department of General Medicine, Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad, India

author email corresponding author email

BMC Clinical Pathology 2005, 5:11doi:10.1186/1472-6890-5-11


Published:	12 December 2005

Abstract

Background

Lymph node infarction is known to occur in association with many non-neoplastic and neoplastic conditions however its occurrence in association with DIC is not reported hitherto in the literature.

Case presentation

We describe an unusual case of lymph node infarction in a twenty seven year old male following disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) in a case of dengue fever. Multiple sections of the infarcted and the surrounding non-infarcted lymph nodes failed to reveal any predisposing condition. How ever the parahilar vessels showed thrombotic occlusion, which must have been responsible for the infarction.

Conclusion

Global infarction of the lymph node may mask the underlying pathology. Any malignancy especially lymphoma may coexist or follow lymph node infarction, therefore the patient needs constant surveillance.