Radiology Case Reports (May 2023)

Kimura disease forming a human polyomavirus 6–negative parotid gland nodule with prominent squamous metaplasia in a young female: A case report

  • Kenji Yorita, MD, PhD,
  • Tatsuya Fujii, MD,
  • Toshitaka Nagao, MD, PhD,
  • Ichiro Murakami, MD, PhD,
  • Yumiko Hashida, PhD,
  • Tomonori Higuchi, PhD,
  • Masanori Daibata, MD, PhD,
  • Makoto Toi, MD, PhD,
  • Yoshiyuki Ayada, MD,
  • Takuro Igawa, MD, PhD

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 5
pp. 1933 – 1938

Abstract

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A case of an asymptomatic 19-year-old woman with Kimura disease presenting with a nodule in the right parotid gland is presented. She had a medical history of atopic dermatitis and noticed a mass on her right-side neck. Cervical lymphadenopathy was clinically diagnosed. The initial management plan was to observe the lesion, which had enlarged from 1 cm to 2 cm in diameter 6 months later. An excisional biopsy was performed, and the pathology confirmed an eosinophil-containing inflammatory parotid gland lesion with many squamous nests and cysts, mimicking a parotid gland tumor. High serum immunoglobulin E levels, peripheral blood eosinophilia, and pathological and genetic diagnoses confirmed Kimura disease. The lesion tested negative for human polyomavirus 6. No recurrence was observed 15 months after the biopsy. The prognosis of Kimura disease without human polyomavirus 6 infection may be favorable; however, further validation of this hypothesis is required as only 5 or 6 cases of Kimura disease have been evaluated for this viral infection. Proliferative squamous metaplasia occurring in parotid gland lesions of Kimura disease is rare and may complicate the diagnostic imaging and pathological diagnosis.

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