TAFRO Syndrome in a Patient of South-American Descent
Keywords
Castleman disease, TAFRO syndromeAbstract
A 31-year-old Caucasian woman of South-American descent was diagnosed with a variant of multicentric Castleman disease (MCD) that has been reported in Japan as Castleman-Kojima disease. This is a systemic inflammatory disorder known as TAFRO Syndrome which includes thrombocytopenia, polyserositis (ascites/pleural effusion), microcytic anemia, myelofibrosis, fever, renal dysfunction and organomegaly, with immunologic disorder, polyclonal hypergammaglobulinemia, and elevated levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the vascular endothelial growth factor present in serum and/or effusions. Optimal therapies are not well established. The patient was treated with methylprednisolone and rituximab. Following the start of treatment, the patient has been asymptomatic for over 8 months.
This is one of only a few reports of TAFRO Syndrome in a non-Japanese patient.
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Published: 2015-07-14
Issue: Vol. 2 No. 4 (2015) (view)
Section: Articles