Pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled ”Pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis followed by a localized retroperitoneal lymphangioleiomyoma” (APMIS. 2006 Nov;114(11):821-4). Authors are Tai HC, Lin JW, Wang YH, et al., from the Department of Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan. Lymphangioleiomyomatosis is a rare disease that affects females of reproductive age. Microscopically, it is characterized by abnormal proliferation of immature smooth muscle-like cells that grow diffusely in the lung. Extrapulmonary manifestations in the mediastinum, peritoneum and pelvic lymph nodes are uncommon. The authors describe a patient who initially presented with pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis and subsequently developed a localized retroperitoneal mass. Pathologic examination showed that the mass was a lymphangioleiomyoma. It is therefore suggested that metastatic lymphangioleiomyoma should be included in the differential diagnosis in the patient with pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis presenting with an extrapulmonary lesion. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.