An Autopsy Case of Malignant Histiocytosis

An autopsy case of malignant histiocytosis (Rappaport, 1966) in 34--year--old man was reported. He noticed malase and unknown fever which was not suppressed by any antibiotics, gradually became pancytopenic and finally died due to plumonary edema 5 weeks after onset. Physical and laboratory findings showed no sign of bacterial or viral infections. Hepatosplenomegaly was noticed but no lymph node was palpable. Pathological examination of autopsied materials revealed proliferation of both typical histiocytes showing massive phagocytosis and atypical histiocytes showing rare phagocytosis in lymph nodes, liver, spleen, kidneys and bone marrow, so that diagnosis of malignant histiocytosis was made. In this case, clinical course was so rapid that diagnosis was difficult to be made in his life, but histopathological feature was considered as relatively typical one.