Two case reports of Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease or histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis is a rare but important etiology of cervical lymphadenopathy in young women. This disease is self limited and improves during 2-8 months. Diagnostic key is the pathology of involved lymphnode. Association of the disease with viral and autoimmune disease is not proved yet. In this article two cases of Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease are reported. Case: The first case was a 31 years old female patient with sever fever and right axillary lymphodenpathy (size: 57cm) in which one month after the disease, diagnosis was proved by pathology studies. This patient has erythematous patches in her face and nose in several times that were improved spontaneously. The second case was a 20 years old female patient with fever, chill, headache, weigh loss and cervical lymphadenopathy (size: 21cm). She received antibiotic at several times without any improvement. Finally after 5 months since the beginning of symptoms, the disease was diagnosed as Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease by surgical excision of lymhnode and pathology studies. After the surgery two small lymphnodes were appeared around the surgical site. In differential diagnosis of lymphadenpathy especially cervical in young women, Kikuchi-Fujimoto should be considered. Consumption of antibiotic in lymphadenopathy without clear diagnosis should be avoided. After diagnosis of Kikuchi-Fujimoto, long term work up for recurrence or the appearance of autoimmune disease symptoms is necessary.