Borrelial lymphocytoma--a historical case.
We here describe a patient with a tick bite in the areola mammae in 1953 followed by erythema migrans. Twenty years later, after another tick bite in the axillary skin, also followed by erythema migrans, a large lymphatic infiltrate developed in the mammary skin, when the margin of the erythema reached the areola. The infiltrate resolved within a year without any therapy. Borrelial DNA was detected by polymerase chain reaction in the paraffin blocks of the lymphatic skin infiltrate. The patient died 9 years later of generalized lymphoma. A similar monoclonal immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangement was detected both in the mammary skin lesion and in the lymphoma specimen.
Sonck
C E
CE
Department of Dermatology, University of Turku, Finland.
Viljanen
M
M
Hirsimäki
P
P
Söderström
K O
KO
Ekfors
T O
TO
D000818:Animals; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000266:history* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D019310:Pseudolymphoma / Q000266:history* / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*