Wallace S, Bedu-Addo G, Rutherford T R, Bates I
Division of Haematology, St George's Hospital Medical School, London, UK.
Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1998 Jul-Aug;92(4):463-7. doi: 10.1016/s0035-9203(98)91095-1.
In West Africa hyperreactive malarial splenomegaly (HMS) and splenic lymphoma with villous lymphocytes (SLVL) are demographically and clinically indistinguishable. Determination of lymphocyte clonality is needed to differentiate clearly between these 2 disorders. To obtain evidence to support our hypothesis that HMS and SLVL are aetiologically related we studied the serological profile of malaria-related antibodies in HMS and SLVL in West Africa. We found that in SLVL total immunoglobulin M and antimalarial antibody levels were markedly raised, a combination which is characteristic of HMS. These findings strongly support a developmental relationship between HMS and SLVL in tropical Africa and implicate malaria in this process.
