T cell lymphocytosis associated with polymyositis, myasthenia gravis and thymoma.
Peripheral T cell lymphocytosis is a rare finding in association with malignant thymomas. In the majority of previous cases, the tumours have behaved aggressively with symptoms arising from local invasion. We describe a patient with ocular myasthenia gravis who presented with a rapidly progressive polymyositis and neuropathy and who was subsequently found to have a thymic mass and a mild T cell lymphocytosis. The thymoma did not give rise to local symptoms and showed no evidence of progression over a 14-month period of follow-up. The possibility of an underlying thymic tumour should be considered in any patient with chronic T cell lymphocytosis if the circulating cells show mature morphology and there is no molecular evidence of monoclonality.
Otton
S H
SH
Department of Haematology, Bristol Royal Infirmary, Bristol, UK.
Standen
G R
GR
Ormerod
I E
IE
D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D008218:Lymphocytosis / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D009157:Myasthenia Gravis / Q000473:pathology*; D017285:Polymyositis / Q000473:pathology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D013945:Thymoma / Q000473:pathology*; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*