Clinical and pathological findings of multicentric Castleman's disease and systemic IgG4-related lymphadenopathy
| Findings | Multicentric Castleman's disease (present series) | Systemic IgG4-related lymphadenopathy (data from Sato et al8) | p Value* |
| Clinical findings | |||
| Systemic lymphadenopathy | Yes | Yes | – |
| Polyclonal hypergammaglobulinaemia | Yes | Yes | – |
| Elevated serum IgG level | Yes (mean±SD 5354.33±2278.67 mg/dl) | Yes (mean±SD 3651.8±1214.1 mg/dl) | NS |
| Elevated serum IgA level | Yes (mean±SD 708.35±241.65 mg/dl) | No (mean±SD 228.5±135.73 mg/dl) | 0.003 |
| Elevated serum IL-6 level | Yes (mean±SD 22.35±8.77 pg/ml) | No (mean±SD 8.45±11.61 pg/ml) | 0.039 |
| Elevated CRP level | Yes (mean±SD 7.50±2.70 mg/dl) | No (mean±SD 0.29±0.25 mg/dl) | 0.001 |
| Anaemia | Yes (haemoglobin level: mean±SD 10.30±2.37 g/dl) | No (haemoglobin level: mean±SD 12.96±1.61 g/dl) | 0.034 |
| Hypoalbuminaemia | Yes (albumin level: mean±SD 2.7±0.73 g/dl) | No (albumin level: mean±SD 3.71±0.48 g/dl) | 0.011 |
| Hypocholesterolaemia | Yes (total cholesterol: mean±SD 113.40±18.98 mg/dl) | No (total cholesterol: mean±SD 163.1±28.11 mg/dl) | 0.009 |
| Thrombocytosis | Yes | No | – |
| Pathological findings | |||
| Germinal centre | Small and regressive | Normal–hyperplastic | – |
| Interfollicular area | Sheets of proliferating mature plasma cells | Proliferation of mature plasma cells with plasmacytoid cells and immunoblasts | – |
| Eosinophil infiltration | No | Yes | – |
↵* p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
CRP, C-reactive protein; Ig, immunoglobulin; IL-6, interleukin-6; NS, not significant.