Large granular lymphocyte leukemia as a complication of rheumatoid arthritis
- PMID: 22483660
- DOI: 10.1016/j.reuma.2011.12.014
Large granular lymphocyte leukemia as a complication of rheumatoid arthritis
Abstract
Large granular lymphocyte leukemia is a rare entity belonging to same spectrum of diseases than Felty's syndrome, which might occur in patients with long-standing rheumatoid arthritis. It is clinically characterized by persistent neutropenia and recurrent bacterial infections associated with the presence in both peripheral blood and bone marrow of clonal expansion of atypic lymphocytes with a cytotoxic T cell phenotype, or less frequently an NK-cell phenotype, as well as splenomegaly. It is more frequently diagnosed in seropositive rheumatoid arthritis, with significant structural damage, extra-articular manifestations and persistently elevated values of ESR, despite them havubg low inflammatory joint activity. We report the case of a 70 year old male with a long-standing rheumatoid arthritis, who developed septic shock secondary to prosthetic hip infection by Salmonella spp. He showed persistent neutropenia, and an aberrant monoclonal T cell population was detected in both peripheral blood and bone marrow, consistent with large granular lymphocyte leukemia.
Copyright © 2011 Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical
Miscellaneous