Adenopathies in Internal Medicine Etiological Profile and Diagnostic Limits

INTRODUCTION: Anadenopathy is a pathological hypertrophy of a lymph node of various etiologiesrequiring a rigorous approach. Thus we proposed in this work to study theetiological particularities of patients admitted for adenopathy in order toidentify their specificities. METHODS: This was an observational studyof a transverse and descriptive type, which took place from 1 July 2015 to 30June 2016 in the internal medicine department of the Aristide Le Dantecnational hospital in Dakar. RESULTS: We identified 84 patients, consistedof 46 male and 38 female. The sexratio was 1.2. The mean age was 37.5 years. The consultation period was onaverage 2 months with extremes of 1 month and 1 year. The mean hospital staywas 29. 2 dayswith extremes of 1 week and 2 months. The etiologies found were classified into6 groups. Hemopathies (30.9%) were dominated by acute leukemia in 8 patients(9.52%), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 9 patients (9.5%), Hodgkin’s disease in 5patients (5.9%). Chronic lymphocytic leukemia was retained in 3 patients (3.5%)and Castleman disease in 1 patient. Systemic diseases (11.9%) were divided intolupus disease in 4 patients and rheumatoid arthritis in 4 patients, one case ofSj?gren’s syndrome and one case of sarcoidosis. Infections were very frequentin our study, found in 34 patients (40.4%). Tuberculosis was morefrequent (27.3%). The association with HIV was noted in 4 patients. The otherinfections were pyogenic in 3 patients (3.5%), HIV in 6 patients(7.1%), Borrelia and toxoplasma in 1 patient respectively. Cancers (8.3%) weremetastatic of primary tumors including the esophagus, lung, prostate, cavum,stomach, pancreas and breast, one case each. One patient presentedlymphadenopathy with inguinal localization, the etiology of which was found tobe thrombophlebitis of the right lower limb. The hystiocytic pathologies (3.5%)were all related to lymphohystiocytic activation syndrome (LHAS) secondary totuberculosis in 2 patients and pyomyositis in 1 patient. The difficultiesencountered were mainly the inaccessibility of certain complementaryexaminations and the delay in obtaining the results. CONCLUSION: Adenopathies are a very common reason for consultation in internal medicine. This study allowed us todraw up the etiological profile of adenopathies in our practice but also toidentify the main difficulties which are among other things the inaccessibilityof certain complementary examinations.