What can cause granulomatous inflammation?

Granulomatous inflammation is caused by a variety of conditions including infection, autoimmune, toxic, allergic, drug, and neoplastic conditions. The tissue reaction pattern narrows the pathologic and clinical differential diagnosis and subsequent clinical management.

What diseases have granulomatous inflammation?

Relatively few bacterial infections typically cause granulomas during infection, including brucellosis, Q-fever, cat-scratch disease (33) (Bartonella), melioidosis, Whipple’s disease (20), nocardiosis and actinomycosis.

What are histiocytes cells?

A histiocyte is a normal immune cell that is found in many parts of the body especially in the bone marrow, the blood stream, the skin, the liver, the lungs, the lymph glands and the spleen. In histiocytosis, the histiocytes move into tissues where they are not normally found and cause damage to those tissues.

Is granulomatous disease curable?

Treatment consists of continuous therapy with antibiotic and antifungal medications to treat and prevent infections. The only cure for the disease is an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).

How do you treat granulomatous inflammation?

Treatments may include:

Infection management. Your doctor will work to prevent bacterial and fungal infections before they occur.
Interferon-gamma. You may have interferon-gamma injections periodically, which may help boost cells in your immune system to fight infections.
Stem cell transplantation.

Are histiocytes white blood cells?

Histiocyte cells are a form of white blood cells that help the immune system destroy foreign materials and fight infection. The extra immune cells produced by this condition may form tumors, which can affect parts of the body like the bones and possibly spread to other areas.

How serious is granuloma?

People with chronic granulomatous disease experience serious bacterial or fungal infection every few years. An infection in the lungs, including pneumonia, is common. People with CGD may develop a serious type of fungal pneumonia after being exposed to dead leaves, mulch or hay.

How are histiocytic diseases different from granulomatous diseases?

Histiocytes are bone marrow-derived or mesenchymal. In granulomas, their cytoplasmic membranes touch with no intervening connective tissue. Infectious etiologies, especially fungal and mycobacterial, should be excluded with special stains in any granulomatous process without obvious etiology.

What kind of histiocytes are in sarcoidal granulomas?

Sarcoidal granulomas, composed of epithelioid histiocytes, are “naked” granulomas with a paucity of surrounding infiltrate. Tuberculoid granulomas are associated with a peripheral mononuclear infiltrate and may show central caseous necrosis.

Where do eosinophils occur in histiocytic disease?

Sparse multinucleate histiocytes are typically identified and eosinophils occur in approximately half of cases. Rarely, perforation of the process through the epidermis (transepidermal elimination) occurs. The subcutaneous tissue can be involved.

What kind of stain is used for histiocytic disease?

The mucin in palisading lesions is usually apparent with routine staining as faint feathery blue material; however, colloidal iron or other mucin stains can be used for confirmation. Sparse multinucleate histiocytes are typically identified and eosinophils occur in approximately half of cases.