title: Acute Tonsillitis With Concurrent Kikuchi's Disease as a Cause of Persistent Lymphadenopathy.
abstract: We present a young adult female with symptoms of acute tonsillitis and tender cervical lymphadenopathy. Despite a full course of oral antibiotics, she had persistent left lower cervical lymphadenopathy measuring 2.0 x 1.5 cm at 2 weeks post-treatment. Rigid and flexible scope examinations did not reveal any abnormalities in the nasopharynx, oropharynx or hypopharynx. Tuberculosis tests were negative and blood index results were normal. Fine needle aspiration cytology revealed a non-specific granulomatous inflammatory process. Excisional lymph node biopsy was performed, and the patient was diagnosed as having Kikuchi's Disease (KD). We would like to highlight the diagnostic challenges in detecting this condition and the importance of differentiating KD from tuberculosis and malignant lymphoma, the latter of which requires aggressive treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Jalan Yaakob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Halimuddin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sawali
authors.forename: Primuharsa Putra
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Sabir Husin Athar
authors.forename: Mazita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ami
authors.forename: Nor Hasni
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Shamsudin
authors.forename: Gopalan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nair