Abnormalities of bone marrow simulating histiocytic medullary reticulosis in a patient with gastric carcinoma

Abstract

In the proper clinical setting, phagocytosis by bone marrow histiocytes of erythrocytes, granulocytes, and platelets (panphagocytosis) is generally accepted as the morphologic hallmark of histiocytic medullary reticulosis. A patient with clinical manifestations that suggested histiocytic medullary reticulosis was found also to have histiocytic panphagocytosis in the bone marrow. Biopsy of the liver, however, revealed metastatic adenocarcinoma. In addition, postmortem examination demonstrated a gastric adenocarcinoma with massive hepatic involvement and absence of lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, or evidence of generalized histiocytic proliferation. Therefore, histiocytic panphagocytosis is probably not specific for histiocytic medullary reticulosis, and may be a nonspecific feature of a variety of diseases.