Pregnancy Care in Family Medicine: From A Painful Lymphadenopathy to A Rare Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Case

Abstract

A 32-year-old, 17-week pregnant patient visited her family physician because of painful lymphadenopathy on the right side of her neck after an upper respiratory tract infection. On physical examination, her vital signs were stable. A few elastic, firm, fixed, and painful lymphadenopathies, the largest of which was 1 cm were detected in the right cervical region, and the pharynx of the patient was hyperemic. Empirical antibiotherapy treatment was initiated by the family physician with the diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infection and the patient was called for control follow-up. Due to the rapid growth of lymph nodes and their size over 1 cm, she was referred to the otorhinolaryngology outpatient clinic with a preliminary diagnosis of malignancy. She was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma. Pregnancy termination was recommended to the patient whose chemotherapy was scheduled, but the patient refused. At the 32nd week of pregnancy, the pregnancy was terminated due to fetal distress and a 1500-gram live baby girl was born. Since it is associated with pregnancy and rare, and that the family physician plays a role in early diagnosis of a important disease such as malignancy, it is deemed appropriate to present the case with literature.

Keywords

• pregnancy
• lymphoma
• lymphadenopathy.