Skin lesions in angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy: histological and immunological studies.

Angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy with drysproteinaemia is reported (AILD) in four patients with different skin pictures. As the disease progresses two main forms predominate; papulonodular and erythroderma. In all cases the histological picture of the skin mirrors that of the lymph-node. Our results point to an increase in the peripheral blood, lymph-nodes and skin of T and subsequently of B lymphocytes suggesting that a proliferation of helper T cells and hence activation of the B-cell subpopulation may be involved in the pathogenesis of some cases of AILD.