Hyaline vascular Castleman's disease: a case report and brief review of the literature

We describe a 27-year-old female with a mesenterial localisation of the hyaline vascular type of Castleman's disease. A review of the literature is given with emphasis on the different pathogenesis of the subtypes. The hyaline vascular type is a disorder of stromal cells, which can be complicated by the development of soft tissue sarcomas. The plasma cell type is a plasma cell disorder with elevated levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6). In the multicentric type, infection with human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8) plays an important role in the pathogenesis. The development of Kaposi's sarcoma and some lymphomas are related to the presence of HHV-8. As the different subtypes have a different pathogenesis they should be regarded as distinct diseases.