An uncommon clinical presentation of SLE

Abstract

Cervical lymphadenopathy is a clinical feature of vast spectrum of diseases. It includes infections, malignancy, lymphoma, and connective tissue diseases. All cases need to be evaluated in detail with proper laboratory investigations and a tissue cytology/biopsy to unmask the etiology. Here, we present a young woman who was admitted for multiple painful neck swellings associated with fever for 3 months. She was primarily investigated to rule out infectious causes. The patient was evaluated in detail including blood investigations and biopsy and finally turned out to be systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)-associated lymphadenopathy. This case shows that painful neck nodes can be a presenting feature of SLE and needs to be considered as one of the differential diagnosis in patients presenting with lymphadenopathy along with constitutional symptoms.

Keywords

• cervical lymphadenopathy
• karyorrhectic debris
• kikuchi-fujimoto disease
• ssa antibody
• systemic lupus erythematosus