Cystic lymphangioma of the adrenal gland is a rare and benign lesion, most often found incidentally during abdominal imaging studies, abdominal surgery or at autopsy.
We aimed to retrospectively review all adrenal lymphangioma cases at our hospital, further document their lymphatic origin by immunohistochemical staining and discuss the differential diagnosis with other cystic adrenal gland lesions. A total of 3 adrenal lymphangioma cases were identified. All three patients were men and adults at time of diagnosis aged 41 years, 43 years, and 66 years, respectively. All were incidentally identified during investigating for unrelated reasons, two of which were discovered by routine radiologic check-up while the last one was found during imaging detection of ureteral cancer. The average size of an adrenal lymphangioma lesion was 3.2 cm (range, 2.5-4.6 cm). Histologically, all three cases showed a typical multicystic architecture with dilated spaces lined by flattened, bland, simple lining. The cystic spaces occasionally contained proteinaceous material but lacked red blood cell content. On immunohistochemical stains, D2-40 cytoplasmic staining was positive in all three lesions, whereas AE1/AE3 was negative, thus, confirming their lymphatic nature.
Written by:
Zhao M, Gu Q, Li C, Yu J, Qi H. Are you the author?
Department of Pathology, Ningbo Yinzhou Second Hospital Ningbo, Zhejiang 315100, PR China; Department of Pathology, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310014, PR China; Department of Radiology, Ningbo Yinzhou Second Hospital Ningbo, Zhejiang 315100, PR China; Department of Urology, Ningbo Yinzhou Second Hospital Ningbo, Zhejiang 315100, PR China.
Reference: Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2014 Jul 15;7(8):5051-6.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25197378