Li YF, Han SH, Qie P, Yin QF, Wang HE. Langerhans cell histiocytosis involving only the thymus in an adult: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(32): 12045-12051 [PMID: 36405289 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i32.12045]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hui-En Wang, MM, Associate Chief Physician, Associate Professor, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Hebei General Hospital, No. 348 West Heping Boulevard, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, China. wanghe829@126.com
Research Domain of This Article
Surgery
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Nov 16, 2022; 10(32): 12045-12051 Published online Nov 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i32.12045
Langerhans cell histiocytosis involving only the thymus in an adult: A case report
Yi-Fan Li, Shao-Hui Han, Peng Qie, Qi-Fan Yin, Hui-En Wang
Yi-Fan Li, Shao-Hui Han, Peng Qie, Qi-Fan Yin, Hui-En Wang, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, China
Yi-Fan Li, Graduate School, Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou 075000, Hebei Province, China
Author contributions: Li YF and Han SH contributed to manuscript writing and editing; Qie P and Yin QF contributed to manuscript data collection; Wang HE contributed to conceptualization and supervision; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient and her family for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hui-En Wang, MM, Associate Chief Physician, Associate Professor, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Hebei General Hospital, No. 348 West Heping Boulevard, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, China. wanghe829@126.com
Received: August 20, 2022 Peer-review started: August 20, 2022 First decision: September 5, 2022 Revised: September 7, 2022 Accepted: October 12, 2022 Article in press: October 12, 2022 Published online: November 16, 2022 Processing time: 80 Days and 4.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disease of unknown etiology. LCH involving the thymus is mainly seen in pediatric patients and is extremely rare in adults. In this report, we describe a rare case of LCH originating from the thymus in an adult.
CASE SUMMARY
A 56-year-old man was admitted in April 2022 with complaints of intermittent dizziness since 2020, which had worsened in the previous 10 d. The physical chest examination was negative, and there was a history of hypertension for > 2 years. Chest computed tomography showed a nodular soft tissue density shadow in the anterior mediastinum measuring approximately 13 mm × 9 mm × 8 mm. Postoperative pathological findings confirmed the diagnosis of LCH.
CONCLUSION
It is challenging to differentiate LCH involving the thymus from thymoma in imaging features. Pathological biopsy remains the gold standard when an anterior mediastinal occupying lesion is found.
Core Tip: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is an infrequent clinical hematological disorder. The gold standard for diagnosis is surgical biopsy for pathological examination and immunohistochemical analysis. We report a rare case of LCH with monosystemic involvement, which, when combined with previous case reports of LCH, reveals that LCH involving only the thymus is extremely rare in adults. The imaging features are similar to those of thymoma and may provide additional diagnostic ideas in the detection of anterior mediastinal occupations.
